Fisheries committee  Thank you. You've summarized it well, David. The challenge is that without our definitions that we now have out in the public domain on our website, there were some assumptions because we're now saying that we're protecting fisheries. If you define exactly where fishing takes place, that's one thing.

Fisheries committee  No, it's not. It's basically saying that if an area is licensed for fishing, and that's the law that we have to follow, then we're covering it. Our website does note where the exceptions are and it talks about, not in exactly these words, farmers' fields, ditches, man-made ponds, and those types of things as the areas that are not covered.

Fisheries committee  Most of that fund goes to our central and arctic region. A lot of it goes to science. It's people in Burlington. It really has four areas. There's funding for prevention, which includes things like education and outreach. I'll give you a couple of examples. We're working with the Invasive Species Centre in Sault Ste.

Fisheries committee  The Canadian Council of Fisheries and Aquaculture Ministers is a group that meets once a year and regularly. They have a few task forces and ongoing committees. Aquatic invasive species was established a few years ago and is one of the key places where we work very closely with the provinces, because we have joint responsibility for it, and we've worked with them on the regulation, but also on what we're doing to address what is indeed an emerging issue.

Fisheries committee  I hear you. I'll quickly finalize what I was talking about. The exception to the consolidation is the north, where we've maintained our offices where they were. There is a little bit of a reduction, but on the number of offices in the north, we still have staff in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, and Inuvik.

Fisheries committee  I don't think we've had scientists in the north. I'll let the deputy speak to this.

Fisheries committee  It's interesting. We talk about the changes to the Fisheries Act, and people talk about various things. The one major addition that I think we've made in the Fisheries Act is the regulatory authority around aquatic invasive species. In 1977, which I think was the last time we changed the Fisheries Act and put in the habitat provisions and those types of things, it wasn't an issue.

Fisheries committee  I would say David's outlines are.... We have consolidated, and I think the numbers actually are from 63 to 16 offices. I would add the issue around partnership. The idea is that we wanted to bump up the partnership, work with local people, and consolidate our decision-making and our people in a few areas.

Fisheries committee  Sure. It really is on-the-ground work. We talk about partnerships. It really is a down payment on those partnerships. The whole idea of section 4 of the Fisheries Act amendments is to make sure.... The reality is, there are hundreds of thousands of Canadians in these watershed groups who are passionate about fisheries' protection, who are working on removing barriers to fisheries, who are cleaning debris, who are fixing culverts, who are doing those types of projects, and our job is to align our work with their work.

Fisheries committee  There was section 35 in the previous version of the act, which basically said that you can't harmfully alter, disrupt, or destroy fish habitat with any project. What it now says is that you can't cause serious harm to fish “that are part of a commercial, recreational or Aboriginal fishery, or to fish that support such a fishery”.