The member for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception says maybe not, but I think so. I think the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is going to stick to his guns. If he had no intention of sticking to his guns, I believe the minister for ACOA would be pounding his chest tonight, threatening and asking the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans to change his mind. The minister has been very quiet, so I believe that the minister of fisheries has made up his mind. The fact that we had this debate tonight is not going to make one bit of difference tomorrow.
I am very disappointed not only with the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans but with the minister for ACOA. Knowing full well the impact that this announcement would have, the minister of fisheries and the minister for ACOA went before the microphones in Newfoundland without a long term plan to place before the people, except the measly $23 million in make work programs. Those are not my words. The minister for ACOA said it himself to the people in Newfoundland. He was making $23 million available for make work programs, no long term plan for the fishery of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The member for Bonavista—Trinity—Conception mentioned it this evening. Ever since 1992 when the first moratorium came into effect, there has been no long term plan for the future of the fishery in Newfoundland and Labrador. What do we have? We have $23 million for make work programs and $6 million announced for a study on seals. That is absolutely shameful.
To announce a $6 million study on seals is equivalent to the Chinese water torture for fishermen. How much more study do we need to do on seals in Newfoundland and Labrador before we come to the conclusion that seals are eating too much fish? Surely it does not require $6 million. It does not require $6 million to know that back in 1992 there were 2.5 million seals in the waters in and around Newfoundland and today in 2003, 10 years later, there are eight million or nine million seals.
If the fish stocks are still in continual decline, then there has to be a problem with the seals out there. The Grand Banks cod stocks we are told, and I think it was mentioned in the committee hearings that we were at, give testimony to the fact that even though parts of that fishery were closed for a long time, the stock never increased by even one fish. There must be a problem with the sealing population.
What is the long term plan that the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has for the fishery of Newfoundland and Labrador? DFO has been saying for years that nature is going to look after the problem. Nature will probably look after the problem when every single fish is gone and the seals starve to death. Nature can only look after the problem if a proper balance is maintained. The unfortunate thing is that the balance between the seal population and the cod stocks has been upset over the years by foreign overfishing, most of it totally ignored by the federal government.
With these two factors at play, combined with the fact that Ottawa has little or no interest in the fishery that caters to a small place like Newfoundland and Labrador, we are fighting a losing battle. We are victims of our geography. We are victims of the fact that we have a small population base. We are victims of the fact that we have too few seats in Newfoundland and Labrador.
One can only imagine the kind of chaos that would have been created 10 years ago if the Atlantic region had 100 seats. The federal government would not take long to deal with the seal population explosion. Foreign overfishing and custodial management would be high on the agenda and would maintain a prominent position around the cabinet table. However, we are victims of the fact that we have a small population. We do not have a whole lot of political clout, so the federal government does not have to cater to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. It does not have to cater to the people of Atlantic Canada.
Is it any wonder that people in Newfoundland and all over the Atlantic region have so little confidence in the federal government, that it is going to represent our interests. It has never represented our interests in the fishery. The cod fishery could be gone forever. There was no long term plan back in 1992 and there is no long term plan for the fishery today. It may never return, and the government still refuses to put its shoulder to the wheel to avert what may very well be the greatest ecological disaster in the history of Canada, probably the history of the world: the complete extinction of the world's greatest fishery resource. That is too bad. I wonder if the people of Canada fully understand or fully believe what is going on here and what has happened since 1992 in particular.
Back in 1949 Newfoundland brought the world's greatest fishery into Canada. We passed the jurisdiction and management of that fishery over to the federal government. Here we are 53 years later. The government is presiding over a disaster of epic proportions.
The government watched without interest as foreigners raped and pillaged the cod stocks in Newfoundland and Labrador. The government watched without interest as the seal herd grew from two and a half million back in 1992 to eight or nine million today, and it did nothing to correct that problem.
As another member before me pointed out, the government ignored the unanimous recommendations of its own fisheries committee on custodial management. It will continue to ignore the recommendations because there is no desire to upset the Europeans. There is no desire to take on NAFO countries who will still continue to pillage and rape fish stocks outside the 200 miles while our fishermen and plants remain idle.
What a sad commentary on our place in Confederation. A once proud nation is what we were prior to 1949. What a sad commentary on the minister representing Newfoundland and Labrador who has done virtually nothing to avert the situation, who has remained silent throughout all the fishery committee meetings on this particular issue and who continues to remain silent.
As a result of the last moratorium back in 1992 Newfoundland lost 70,000 people in 10 years from that small population of a half a million people. We may very well lose another 70,000 in the next 10 years.
Instead of a long term plan, what the minister for ACOA came up with was a great big make work project for the people in Newfoundland and Labrador. That is not serving the interests of the people in Newfoundland and Labrador.