Mr. Speaker, I want to clarify one of the comments the member made. I am not boasting about the file. That is certainly not my intention.
As anyone knows who has read our report, we were critical of the department and it needs to respond to it. I am not going to stand here in the House and say that everything has been perfect vis-à-vis the management of the salmon in the Fraser River. That is not the case. Members will see that when they read our report. The minister did respond quickly and decisively to our report. He knows there are issues.
There is one point that I do want to make this afternoon, that this is not a simple problem that has one simple answer. It is a complex problem and it has to be dealt with as such. If it were one issue and if it took a little bit of money here and doing this or doing that, then I am sure it would have been done years ago. As I have stated before, this is not the first time this incident has occurred on the Fraser River.
If I may deal with the specific question of the member, as the minister pointed out in committee yesterday, he has taken about seven or eight specific detailed measures for this year's management plan. The first and perhaps the most important is to enhance the number of officers, to give them more money so they have better equipment and more allocations for overtime. It is basically to improve and enhance the enforcement on the Fraser River.
The second issue is to improve the relationships between the Government of Canada and the different stakeholders there. It comes down to that. However, from what I have heard over the last year, if we had 10,000 officers on the Fraser River, they would not stop all the illegal or unauthorized fishing.
There will be much better and improved monitoring of the fishery. The minister has also restructured his department. There will be very clear roles of accountability and responsibility in dealing with this issue.
To answer my friend's question, I believe the minister has made a very detailed and comprehensive response to our report. The minister has stated that he and his officials have for the last number of months viewed this as the number one management issue in fisheries in Canada. I am confident that these measures will pay off in this year's run.