Fisheries committee  I think we need to put a strategic group together, a focus group to look at all of these angles and put them together. This is going to be a long thought and work process. We need to get not only fishermen and MPs and DFO personnel, but also engineers and climate experts, to try to give ourselves an idea of where we're going here along our shores with this climate crisis.

Fisheries committee  Yes, maybe one option would be to look at the model that was used just recently with the COVID crisis, when there was some access to a loan program with part of it being forgivable as a grant. The difficult thing here is to try to gauge the actual need per harvester. Every harvester has a different situation to address, and in some cases, such as in our case in LFA 25, where the fishery was going on during the storm, some fishermen on the eastern part of that zone had very little damage to their gear, whereas most of our fishermen on the western side of the zone were very affected.

Fisheries committee  Again, I can't answer for sure.

Fisheries committee  Luc, do you want to take that one?

Fisheries committee  That's a good question. We're not privy to the internal discussions that are being held within the DFO in terms of what types of planning they have towards this climate crisis. However, there are some conversations being held, especially between the DFO, small craft harbours and the port authorities, especially in our case, over the past 10 years, I would say.

Fisheries committee  As we just mentioned, I think that the wharf infrastructures that have been renovated have been renovated with the idea that the sea level will be increasing and the intensity of storms will be increasing as well. Luc mentioned earlier that the main costs of these renovations were raising the seawalls to make them higher and wider, and also increasing the height of the wharf decks.

Fisheries committee  Yes. That was the second storm in three years. We absolutely have to review our strategy. In spite of the major investments made over the last few years, that is insufficient to deal with what is coming in the next decades. If there is a positive side to Fiona, it is that we have the proof that a properly renovated wharf can stand up.

Fisheries committee  We have to invest now in infrastructure that can stand up to the types of storms and climate we are going to see in the coming decades. It is going to cost us a lot less than waiting to find ourselves in situations with wharves and entire infrastructure facilities disappearing because of a storm.

Fisheries committee  Absolutely. The two things go hand in hand. However, we are now in a situation where we no longer have any choice but to learn and start to adapt, as human beings, to the climate change that is happening now. We are living in it.

Fisheries committee  I'll answer the first question by saying that there is no rapid response as of yet to the climate change crisis or any type of situation with wharves of the magnitude that we just saw. We should, and I like Mr. Cormier's suggestion of having a strategic committee or group focused on putting together some kind of a strategy for all of eastern Canada and all of our coastlines, including the west, the Atlantic and the Arctic.

Fisheries committee  I'll leave it to Luc answer that, because he's getting the brunt of the calls right now, actually.

Fisheries committee  About a week after the storm this fall, we had a meeting with the regional director for the gulf about small craft harbours. We told him that our priority was to address our lack of dragging capacity. It is needed in emergencies, in addition to well before all our fisheries start, everywhere in the region.

Fisheries committee  It has been proposed to us, and it is an excellent suggestion, that multi-year contracts be signed for those contractors. Instead of renewing the contracts every year or going about it piecemeal, we could sign three-year or five-year contracts with contractors who know the list of harbours they are going to be handling.

Fisheries committee  It's already an issue. We have the same volunteers on these wharf authorities as we have on own fishing councils within the MFU and other associations. One recommendation that I'm hearing a lot from our volunteers is that they would need extra funds, maybe from DFO, to help them with the operation of the small craft harbour port authorities.

Fisheries committee  No, there are no programs that we've seen yet that are particularly focused on helping out fishermen with this recent storm. Now we're hearing that some discussions are in progress within DFO and ACOA, for instance, and in some cases with some of the provinces, but for us, our next step is to put some time in there to see what we can get out of it and see how we can collaborate with the government to put together a program that can fit.