Fisheries committee  Should priority be given to inshore fleets when the resource has to be shared?

Fisheries committee  I meant shrimpers.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, gentlemen.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Bernatchez, thank you for being here. I think you probably heard the comments of Mr. Lanteigne and Mr. Element, who appeared just before you. How many tonnes of redfish, across all provinces, would these shrimper fleets need to overcome the crisis?

Fisheries committee  I asked you this question because we are hearing a number of figures from both sides. I think you said you were expecting more since the minister's decision. However, you also just said that, even if the fishery opens this year, it won't be a gold mine, and that everyone knows it: Fishermen are still going to have a hard time of it.

Fisheries committee  For the committee, the government or the minister, are you going to present—perhaps for the fifth or sixth time, as you said—your needs in the context of a transition plan to help shrimpers?

Fisheries committee  Okay. Look, I only have six minutes and I want to make sure my message is understood. You have to say what you need. I understand that, as you said, buying back licences won't necessarily solve all the problems. We want to keep these people in the industry, such as deckhands and plant workers.

Fisheries committee  Could you quickly explain to my colleagues and others attending the meeting what a competitive quota would mean instead of an individual quota? In the case of a competitive quota, it's quite a bit more complicated to establish a fishing area. So I'll let you comment on that.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Element and Mr. Lanteigne, I want to review with you what we were talking about earlier, in other words, the types of assistance. As we said, even if you get an allocation of 300,000 tonnes, in the context of the opening of the fishery, you don't know if you're going to be able to sell the fish, or at what price, and so on.

Fisheries committee  That's perfect. I would like to go even further. Mr. Lanteigne, you're also part of an association of crab fishers. You cleaned up the seabed, so to speak, with a few crabbers, such as picking up lost traps, and so on. Could shrimpers do the same? Could we send fishers out to sea to pick up this ghost gear?

Fisheries committee  That's perfect, thank you. Mr. Element, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development appeared before the committee, and he said that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans had done a terrible job in terms of scientific surveys. I don't know if I used the right adjective, but he did a bad job in this area, particularly with respect to fish stocks in several types of fisheries.

Fisheries committee  That's perfect. Mr. Lanteigne, I'll come back to you. Fishers want to be entitled to a certain number of pounds or tonnes of redfish. But there's a very big difference between an individual quota and a competitive quota, isn't there?

Fisheries committee  Okay. I don't have much time left, but I would like to tell you this: I know that what happened is not what you wanted. I know it's not what you expected. Still, there is a 10% allocation and it can be increased. You heard what I said last time, when I asked officials about the additional quotas that could be given to shrimp harvesters.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Lanteigne and Mr. Element.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, it's the same thing here. I think I was cut off or it froze. The same thing happened here. We just lost everything.