Mr. Speaker, I am addressing the House today to come back to a very worrisome matter. It so happens that tomorrow is the start of the next shrimp season. Depending on the ice, this can be changed, but the official date is tomorrow, April 1.
When I asked the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans my question in February, I reminded him of the utter lack of an action plan for the fisheries. Allow me to explain. The answer I got was quite vague. It seemed as through the minister was saying that he was dancing the tango with Quebec minister Laurent Lessard, that everything was going well and that there would be good news in the weeks to come. It is now March 31.
As I mentioned, the fishing season begins tomorrow. Unfortunately, we are still at square one, waiting for a concrete action plan that should be in place to help fishers during a season which, each year, is marked by rather difficult conditions. We know that negotiations have taken place between processors and fishers. One might say that, this year, these negotiations seem a little more positive. In any case, it is definitely not because of the cooperation shown by the minister of Fisheries and Oceans, or his department.
In the end, we find ourselves in a situation where it would take very little to provide greater assistance to those hundreds of people who are wondering whether they will be able to work at the processing plant, or go shrimp fishing. An action plan for the whole fisheries sector would have a much broader scope, but let us deal strictly with the shrimp fishery. It is totally abnormal, illogical and irresponsible to wait until just a few hours, or even a few days, before the beginning of a fishing season to tell people about the action that will be taken. Why did the government not do it earlier?
I had the opportunity to raise this question in February, and I also had the opportunity to raise other ones on the same issue as soon as the last shrimp fishing season ended last year, in 2007. That is why it was important to get back to it. A forum on fisheries was held in Quebec, in November 2006, and we are still without an action plan. Such is the current situation: I have no action plan from the federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. April 2008 is just around the corner, and there is still no action plan from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans regarding a sector that comes under its responsibility, namely fisheries.
Quebec has been completely abandoned by this minister, or this department, regarding very simple issues such as that of shrimp fishing. We could of course raise other issues because, unfortunately, in the fisheries sector it is just one crisis after the other, and it is extremely difficult to accept the fact that nothing is being done in this case.
In November 2006, the minister came before all the stakeholders in the fisheries sector and said—which was disappointing at the time—that he was there first and foremost to listen, while these people were waiting for very concrete measures regarding the 2007 season. Today, we are getting ready for the 2008 season, and there is still no action plan.
That is why I would say that in—