Mr. Chair, the member captured a lot of the hope, but as well, all of the frustrations in Newfoundland and Labrador and in eastern Canada about where the fishery is going. I think what is being met here is a sense that we need some direction and we need a sense of leadership. The leadership is coming from within the fishing communities but we are not necessarily seeing it from within the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
One of the problems with the buddying up system, to which the minister just referred, is that the department does not actually believe in it. I had an opportunity in the standing committee recently to question the assistant deputy minister, Dave Bevan, about whether the department was committed to continuing with the buddying up system. His reply was that the department was not because it did not contribute to rationalization but contributes to people staying in the fishery.
What is wrong with that? I fail to understand why we cannot do things to support our fishers in making a viable industry out of this. Buddying up does not take any more fish out of the water. It is the same as allowing new entrants into a fishery does not take any more fish out of the water if they are simply dividing an existing quota and dividing it more fairly.
A few times tonight the government said that it agrees with that and a few times tonight it said that it disagrees with that. We are not really getting a coherent, clear picture on where it stands on it.
However, I will ask the member for St. John's East this question. Is there a certain importance, a certain relevance to consistency in the decision-making process? I stood here tonight and said that the minister had made a good decision by making the new entrants to the southern gulf fishery feel very stable and comfortable in the fact that they would have a place in that fishery for many years to come.
I then asked if it was the right thing to do the same for those involved in the northern shrimp fishery or should those who are relatively recent new entrants into the fishery feel very insecure. The answer I got back from the government was that they should feel very insecure. That, to me, creates a problem.
Does the member for St. John's East believe it is important to have consistency in the management of our Canadian fisheries?