Mr. Speaker, my colleague and I sit on the fisheries and oceans committee together and I know he cares deeply about our oceans. I also want to thank him for voting in favour of my unanimous motion to tackle ocean plastics. One part of that motion deals with ghost and derelict fishing gear. We were glad to see the government commit $8.6 million to dealing with the cleanup of that abandoned and derelict fishing gear, but it is literally a drop in the bucket. It is not the only solution. We need a polluter-pays model with tracking, marked gear, regulations, monitoring, better accountability and enforcement if we are really going to tackle this issue. Washington and Oregon have done a great job. The Global Ghost Gear Initiative has made many recommendations to the current government, but when it comes to the Speech from the Throne, it barely mentions oceans. It talks about a blue economy and our oceans protection.
Will the member commit to coming up with a comprehensive plan to deal with ghost and derelict fishing gear and not put it on the backs of taxpayers, but on the polluters who are creating this problem that is choking out our ecosystem and actually hurting our fishing economy?