Mr. Speaker, I agree with some of the comments made by the member across the way. This was a major issue that occurred in last summer's run of the salmon in the Fraser River. It has certainly been a major concern of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
I want to congratulate and thank the member and the other members of the fisheries committee for all the work they did over the last winter.
As the member knows, this is a very complex issue. There is no one simple solution that can be identified. The minister knew this last fall. He knew there was a real problem. He knew there were a number of different causes for the problem. People in British Columbia were pointing fingers at each other.
The minister appointed Mr. Justice Bryan Williams and another panel to do a post-season review and come back with recommendations and a report. Also, of course, the members of my committee, who are the masters of their own destiny, decided that this was the number one issue facing us over the winter months. We spent at least three to four months on this issue. Both the panel and the committee wrote reports and, as the member pointed out, they are both good reports, and the minister responded.
One thing concerned me in this whole thing. As a member of the House, I was very embarrassed about it. After the minister appointed Mr. Justice Bryan Williams, former chief justice of the British Columbia Supreme Court and a former president of the Canadian Bar Association, to chair the post-season harvest report in British Columbia, Justice Williams was met with a full court frontal attack in this House, led by the members opposite. He was criticized. He was ridiculed. There was a motion in the House for a judicial inquiry. There was a motion to the committee to fire him. Of course he had no means or mechanism to respond to these attacks. It was very embarrassing and unjustified. It brought this House into disrepute.
I have a question for the member opposite. Given the excellent report that Mr. Justice Williams prepared and given the work of the committee, is the member not embarrassed like I am? I should point out that the charge was led not by that member but by the member for Delta—Richmond East. As a member of the Conservative Party, is he not totally embarrassed by his party's actions over the last winter?