Mr. Speaker, the pros and cons of that argument are quite varied, and this is something that would take an awful lot of discussion at committee. The minute the minister designates any of his authority to other people, there would be major problems.
I will take, for example, the seismic testing off the west coast of Cape Breton. DFO's own scientists said that if the precautionary principle was used, then seismic testing should not be used on the west coast of Cape Breton Island because it could harm crab and larvae stocks. There was evidence that it may happen.
At that time the Liberal minister from Halifax West allowed the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Board the right to make the final decision on whether that testing should go ahead. We argued the point that it was fish habitat and that it was the minister's sole authority to stop that activity from happening. The minister said no. We allowed that decision to be made somewhere else. The same thing could happen with fisheries licences. In some of these communities, nepotism is extremely rampant.
I also remind my hon. Conservative colleagues that Mr. Bagnall, the fisheries minister for Prince Edward Island, was one of the first people to support the bill prior to reading it. After he read it, he said that he would still support it but he had reservations. Look what happened to that government yesterday in the election.