Mr. Chair, I am not against investing money in marketing.
Let us say that prices go up. When lobster is sold on the market again, are the big companies that bought it going to go to the fishers and pay them the difference?
People and fishers in New Brunswick are wondering, because they are the ones going through hard times right now. It is not the Barry company in Newfoundland that is struggling, it is the fishers. Fishers are struggling. What program is the government going to put in place in the short term to help fishers who are struggling?
The minister used the example of 30,000 pounds, but I could have found an example of 10,000 pounds, because there are cases like that out there.
Is there a program? Will the $10 million help fishers immediately? Following the demonstration in Tracadie-Sheila, we read in Acadie Nouvelle that Ottawa likes to see Atlantic Canada suffer. That is how people feel. Families, fishers, communities and plant workers are trying every day to earn a living, but they cannot see any light at the end of this very dark tunnel.
What does the minister have to say to the fishers listening to us this evening? Fishers are listening to what the minister has to say tonight. What will they be getting? What will they have tomorrow morning? How will they benefit from the meeting with the Premier of New Brunswick, Shawn Graham, who went to the trouble of coming all the way here from New Brunswick? He certainly did not come here to say that all is well, because all is not well.
What will the government do for fishers, not just for companies that buy lobster and can afford to wait? They have money, but fishers do not.