Fisheries committee  You're absolutely right. We are talking about people's livelihoods. We have a world-class fishery. One of my last comments in our opening statements was around the whole right whale situation and how that has landed out of nowhere on DFO, fishing organizations, and the federal government.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much. It's in the interest of being able to do proper research and come fully prepared. The request was made with all due respect to the committee, for sure.

Fisheries committee  I guess there are a couple of things. I mentioned earlier the conference over at the Magdalen Islands. Even just testing for oil and gas has some significant impacts from a seismic standpoint if they’re using the sound cannons. Until there’s something drilled, they’ll never know the exact size of the field, but it’s anticipated that it’s a pretty significant oil and gas find.

Fisheries committee  That's very interesting. When we go through this and look at it in terms of talking about an interest and about compensation, we think it's reasonable for us to be included—

Fisheries committee  That's disconcerting. I want to point out a couple of things that we feel we're up against in terms of timelines. We have a great working relationship with DFO on a number of files and a number of issues, but basically there was a commitment that there would be two of these letters a year.

Fisheries committee  No, we weren't aware of that, and I guess that does kind of loop back to only having a few days to review the actual legislation and get a presentation together. Based on your earlier comment, certainly we're not excited about just oil and gas being compensated if there is some displacement in a fishing area.

Fisheries committee  I'll answer that one. I believe you're referring to the Marine Stewardship Council MSC certification. Basically, for other people in the room, that's a third party certification body that comes in to look at a specific fishery. I can only talk to lobster because our Prince Edward Island fishery is certified for lobster.

Fisheries committee  You can speak to that.

Fisheries committee  We have done submissions and met the timelines that were laid out. We've done two written submissions on the Fisheries Act, but generally, most of the dialogue has been through emails notifying us of the upcoming proposed changes and going on the website and giving the government feedback on those areas.

Fisheries committee  It is important to get the stakeholder groups together around the table to have an overview of what those proposed changes are. We're dealing with three things. You can correct me if I'm wrong, but there are proposed changes that have been on the table for the Fisheries Act. Today we're talking about changes to the Canada Petroleum Resources Act and the Oceans Act, so it sometimes does get quite confusing for our groups, but we are diligent in looking at those changes and submitting feedback.

Fisheries committee  We're probably going back six or seven years, but certainly there was an extensive conference over the Magdalen Islands that a number of fishing groups attended. Part of why you might not know of our current position has been that the process has been delayed quite a bit in terms of the permit process that Corridor Resources was seeking, but it seems to be back on the table.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Chairman Simms. The Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association once again welcomes the opportunity to present to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans. My name is Ian MacPherson, and I am the executive director of PEIFA. Our president, Bobby Jenkins, was unable to attend this morning.

Fisheries committee  Yes, we would.

Finance committee  I think from our perspective there's a lot of opportunity out there. One thing we have said in the past is that in a typical Canadian household most people wouldn't consider having lobster on a Tuesday night, while they would consider a whole other range of similar proteins and other fish.

Finance committee  Absolutely. In our presentation we mentioned that it's an industry that has been governed by crisis management, and I think we need to get away from that. We need to get into longer-term planning. Some of the numbers I talked about here today, yes, seem like big numbers, but we have to start somewhere.