Fisheries committee  We have had a little bit of conversation with advisers in commercial fisheries advisory processes now to inform a review of the way we have terms of reference developed now, which can vary from one committee to the next for each fishery. Out of that, we've drafted some revisions to what would be the terms of reference and some guidance for how we would develop terms of reference for each individual fishery.

Fisheries committee  No, but thank you for the chance to clarify. We have reviewed and updated our policy and terms of reference for commercial advisory bodies, but we view them as drafts, because we would like to take those revised versions out for consultation before we finalize them.

Fisheries committee  Yes, we can certainly do that.

Fisheries committee  I think that's a better question for the minister than for me. We've made commitments in the government's response to the 2019 recommendations that include a commitment to further engagement around the issues that were raised, and we intend to follow through with that.

Fisheries committee  I don't know that I would share the view that so little has been done. I think we knew from the outset that the committee's recommendations were very wide-ranging and addressed a number of very complex topics on which participants in the commercial fishery have a real diversity of views.

Fisheries committee  We have work under way on a number of the recommendations, as I was describing briefly in my opening comments. We expect to be engaging on the balance of them, and we've done some work on a number of those as well through engagement that we expect to get under way in the months ahead.

Fisheries committee  It's a very good question. What we really set out to do with that assessment was, first, to look at our existing systems and assess what it would take to draw those systems into a public-facing registry. I think what we learned from that first step is that we think we can do that.

Fisheries committee  I don't know that we have an estimate yet to develop such a system. What we're working on right now is developing the contract. We would be seeking someone to develop the system. I expect part of the response to a request for proposals would be information provided by bidders about how long it would take them to develop what we're looking for.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, that will be me.

Fisheries committee  Good morning, Mr. Chair and committee members. I'd like to start today by acknowledging the ongoing extreme wildfire situation that is affecting many Canadians in several regions across the country, including Nova Scotia, Quebec, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. While the situation there is evolving, we know that the impact is far-reaching, and our thoughts are with those affected by these extreme events.

Fisheries committee  We've made a number of attempts over the years to engage different fleets regarding some of the rules that govern their fisheries: marrying, licence stacking.... These provisions vary from one fishery to the next, so it matters which fishery we're talking about. Generally, we have used our engagement and consultation process to implement changes where we have a certain breadth of support for doing so.

Fisheries committee  I'd need a bit more specificity to provide you a good answer, but as I said, we would ensure that we were going through the appropriate engagement process to make any sort of policy changes with respect to how we—

Fisheries committee  I think the department's focus on the west coast has really been about trying to achieve those conservation and economic viability objectives for the fishery. In terms of our role governing what arrangements fishers might make with others who hold quota that they want access to, it has largely been left for them to negotiate arrangements that will work in their best interests.

Fisheries committee  We actually have been working quite actively since the committee's report to respond to the recommendations. I think we were quite explicit from the outset that we saw that happening in a staged way, because there were so many recommendations, a number of which were quite complex and complicated to address.

Fisheries committee  In terms of applicability on the west coast, I think some of the key considerations for us would just be, if we were to explore that, to approach it in the context of the history that has developed with west coast fisheries. For example, in the absence of policies like these, for our fisheries, we have agreements that are fairly well established or long-standing, which may provide access to capital for harvesters for either licences or quota or other fishing assets.