Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, I'm going to answer that question in two parts, and I'll try to be very quick. Seeing gaps in our sector, especially gaps with regard to the fish harvesters and share persons, who are organized in a very different way from the normal economy, we actually did the grant and benefit program to address those gaps that we found in the Canada emergency response benefit and the Canada emergency wage subsidy directly.

Fisheries committee  I believe that is going to be one of the key pillars of the Canadian seafood stabilization fund, which will be administered by the regional agencies. One of the primary pillars of that program announced by the government is actually to increase storage. The desire is to increase storage in the short term so as to continue to have a market and buyers for the goods of the harvesters, and have that lobster come off the wharf and go into storage and then to processors and buyers so they can increase inventory and continue to process that fish and seafood.

Fisheries committee  The objective, I would say, of the cold storage facilities under the Canadian seafood stabilization fund is to allow the processors to continue to buy the harvesters' product over the long run. What happens is that if processors and buyers find themselves in situations in which they cannot either store or send the seafood on to the buyers because of lack of demand, they start regulating how much seafood they're willing to purchase from the harvesting community, and we're already seeing that in certain fisheries at the moment.

Fisheries committee  Whether or not they're going to be excluded from the fund is yet to be determined, Mr. Chair. Basically, the initial thought on the fund was to address pressures in the coastal fisheries that were federally regulated. As we announced the program and rolled it out, we've seen that there is probably a demand for assistance of a similar nature in other jurisdictions besides the four Atlantic provinces, Quebec and British Columbia.

Fisheries committee  What we are definitely seeing, Mr. Chair, is really depressed prices at the wharf due to a decrease in demand for the product. In particular, lobster is one of those products. The price for lobster in the first quarter, for which we have the statistics, remained strong. Last year's prices were particularly high.

Fisheries committee  I can't remember the exact date, but when it became very clear that there was a drop in demand for seafood products, as evidenced by prices at the wharf, in the case of the stabilization fund, one of the things we wanted to make sure happened was that processors were in the best position possible to continue to receive seafood from harvesters.

Fisheries committee  We have ongoing consultations with members of the industry—for instance, the Fisheries Council of Canada and the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance—both bilaterally and multilaterally on what the different segments of the industry require to address what's going on during this pandemic.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Then I'll conclude by saying that DFO will continue to work with its partners and stakeholders to build on the important work accomplished to date to support our vital fish and seafood industries. I welcome the questions of the committee.

Fisheries committee  Thank you again, Mr. Chair, for the invitation to be here to discuss the impacts of COVID-19 on Canada's fishing sector. Following my opening remarks, we will be happy to answer any of your questions. During these unprecedented and challenging times, DFO remains very much at the forefront in managing Canada's fisheries and protecting the marine environment, while the Coast Guard continues to deliver search and rescue services, icebreaking operations, maritime security and environmental response.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning. My name is Jean-Guy Forgeron. I'm the senior assistant deputy minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. I am responsible for the department's strategic policy sector, which covers economics, indigenous and sectoral policy, international and intergovernmental affairs and communications functions.