Mr. Chair, I have said to my department that if there is any kind of flexibility in any policy that we have that would help fishers, we are certainly willing to go down that road. If there is anything we can do at DFO to change the rules a little bit so that they can at least cut down on their input costs, we would be very willing to do that.
We have gone out and talked to the banks as a department. Our mandate is fish stocks and fish habitat, but we have gone and talked to the banks to tell them about the situation and that they may need to be flexible with the repayment terms in the upcoming year.
We have talked to the provinces. As I have said, there are other levels of government here, too. The provinces can be flexible with repayment terms. However, we cannot subsidize a pound of lobster.