Madam Speaker, the member for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception deserves to be congratulated for putting forward this motion. In his concluding remarks, he made the observation that all we have to do is to manage the fish right. I think that is what this is all about. The question is this. How do we find the way of managing the fish right? I suppose that is what this debate is all about.
I would like to devote a few minutes to a few different items, the first one being the Icelandic cod fish.
Why is the Icelandic cod fishery is doing well? Why is it that, according to Icelandic statistics, the catch for the year 2002 is expected to amount to 215,000 tonnes and the catch for the current year is expected to be 212,000 tonnes? This is a remarkable achievement.
Yet Iceland is, as we know, in the middle of the Atlantic. It is surrounded by international waters. It has problems therefore of the exclusive economic zone. It has everything against it in the management of its resources because of its geographic location. The question we could ask ourselves is, why is the Icelandic cod fishery doing so well and why are we now reduced to the situation as announced by the minister?
I can appreciate that the member for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception and the member for Burin—St. George's are opposed to the fishery. That is a natural political reaction. However it is obvious that the minister has no alternative to reduce the catch to 3,500 tonnes, as it has been suggested by the member for Burin—St. George's. It is just a short term solution but it does not go to the root of the question, namely, how do we rebuild the stock because this is what we all want to achieve.
It is therefore necessary to put the question as to why is the Icelandic cod fishery doing reasonably well and maintaining its level.
Keep in mind that throughout the 1970s the cod fisheries of Newfoundland and Labrador, according to Statistics Canada, generated a catch in the range of some 600,000 tonnes per year, with a prevalence of foreign fleets. In the 1980s the catch declined and went down to 250,000 tonnes per year and the prevalent fleets became Canadian in the 1980s.
Iceland finds itself now slightly below the yearly catch that we had throughout the 1980s, until the moratorium of 1992.
Unfortunately this debate does not allow for questions but I would like to know the answer from the member for Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore. Why can we not manage the fisheries the same way the Icelandic community does? There must be an answer. The member has been around here since 1997 but in his speech tonight he did not provide one answer to that question. He gave us a tirade, he went after every minister under the sun, he congratulated the Newfoundland population but he did not come forward with any specific recommendation. He did not even--