Mr. Speaker, today is indeed a good day to have this debate, although in the 12 years that I have had the privilege of representing my constituents of Prince George—Peace River here, it seems as if we have been debating it over and over in these last dozen years.
In the real world outside of Ottawa before I became involved in politics, I was a farmer. I know what tough times farmers are having, not only in my riding in northeastern British Columbia and in western Canada but indeed all across Canada.
Farmers are having a tough time, but I cannot imagine how some of the fishermen who rely on the Fraser River salmon have been able to survive in these last 12 years. As a farmer, I can probably project the tough times that they have had with this disaster that has faced the fishery for quite some time now.
I have a couple of questions for my hon. colleague. The first one deals with exactly what I am relating this back to, and that is the number of times this has happened over the last 12 years. Just as he is even more familiar with the disaster that faced the cod fishery in his home province of Newfoundland and Labrador, I am sure he is familiar with this ongoing disaster in British Columbia with the Fraser River salmon fishery.
What has he noticed in the last dozen years? How many times have the fishermen in British Columbia had to face this type of ongoing disaster and how little has the government done? The government has been in power for almost 12 years now, since the fall of 1993, and as with so many important issues, it seems that the Liberals get up to express their great concern and say they are going to study it and try to arrive at some solutions, but in the end nothing happens. It must be extremely depressing for those fishermen.
My second question is about this latest go-round. I have heard various numbers, but how much does the member project that this has actually cost the B.C. economy? One of the numbers I have heard is $80 million and some.
It is just incredible to think about the struggle that my home province of British Columbia has had in the last while. I am the first to admit that part of it is due to some very ineffective and inefficient governing by the New Democratic Party in the recent past, but this disaster has been an enormous hit, not only to those individual fishermen and their families but by extension to the B.C. economy as a whole. Does the member have any idea of a number so we can put some framework around what this has meant to the province of British Columbia?