Madam Speaker, although I only became a member of Parliament in 1997, I was involved when problems occurred in the fishing industry in 1988, when quotas were lowered not to 7,700 but to 7,000 metric tonnes. That was under Brian Mulroney's government.
At that time, the government did not say that it was up to the province to take care of everyone. The government said it had to be done to protect the resource for the future and introduced a program for everyone, for the fishermen and plant workers, in order to try to manage the crisis. The same thing happened with the closure of the cod fishery in 1993. Programs were established.
Does my Liberal colleague think that the government is washing its hands of this crisis? Last year the fishermen made a recommendation to the government. The government listened, but this year it is cutting their subsidies by 63%, saying that they need to sort out their own problems. This year it will do what it has to, but after that, they have to deal with their problems themselves.
There seems to be a lack of leadership from the federal government and that is what bothers me. That is what is bothering our fishermen, that is what is bothering our plant workers and that is what is bothering plant owners and our communities. It is as though the federal government is saying that it is too bad—