Fisheries committee  The national conservation plan is certainly broader than DFO, but DFO does have an important role. For DFO it's really about marine conservation. It's really about continuing the work that we've been undertaking over the last years since 2007, I believe it is. We've invested over $77 million on the health of the oceans initiative, which has been moving forward on marine protected areas in particular, working on identifying areas of interest, moving forward regulatory proposals, working with stakeholders identifying vulnerable marine ecosystems, and establishing marine protected areas.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. I will answer in English in order to better express myself. We did just speak to the national conservation plan initiative, which includes a marine component, and the new investment that's being made with respect to the oceans program is in the supplementary estimates.

Fisheries committee  No, I think it's in response to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, which was signed; Environment Canada is the lead. Some of the funds for that went to Environment Canada, and it's being transferred to us. It's largely about aquatic invasive species.

Fisheries committee  There is a lot going on in terms of Asian carp. Do you want Asian carp, or aquatic invasive species writ large, or a bit of both?

Fisheries committee  Okay. Let me start with Asian carp. We've talked about that previously with this committee. As you know, a couple of budgets ago we received $17.5 million, over five years, for an Asian carp program. We were able to speak in previous iterations to the objectives of the program, but now we can speak a little bit to some of the actual achievements.

Fisheries committee  It's something that the Great Lakes Fishery Commission is looking at and we're part of that. In terms of section 36, the pollution issues, that would be an Environment Canada lead, specifically.

Fisheries committee  Atlantic salmon has been a concern for a number of years and continues to be. There was a commercial fishery for Atlantic salmon but that was stopped a number of years ago, many years ago. I think 1998 was the last year. In some years we've seen some improvements, but most years it has been really challenging.

Fisheries committee  The Great Lakes fishery, and particularly the Lake Erie fishery, is very significant. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission looks at that on an annual basis and it's the one, I think, that's in the best shape. There are a number of potential threats to that fishery. Certainly, eutrophication is one; Asian carp is another.

Fisheries committee  Well, it did produce these large runs this year, and it produced these large runs in 2010. Our objective is to make sure that with each cycle it continues to improve. We remain concerned about some stocks, weak stocks, etc., but overall we certainly saw good numbers this year.

Fisheries committee  One of the the things we seek to do with aquaculture facilities is to ensure that we have proper siting criteria, as much as possible not in the migration route, and there is a number of other elements that we take into account in that regard. We've been doing research on impacts, and we may want to give some details of that and all those types of things, but aquaculture has been there for the long term, and the wild fishery has been there for the long term as well.

Fisheries committee  I think there are two or three things we can highlight. The program we just discussed, the recreational fisheries partnership program—I think you actually asked where they are being done—they are, indeed, being done in all 10 provinces and at least one of the three territories, but certainly along the Great Lakes watershed.

Fisheries committee  Studies in terms of what habitat in the various Great Lakes are, what we know about habitat, what we don't know about it, and research into different ways of improving those types of things.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much. Thanks for the question, and thanks for the comments, which we will certainly pass on to the staff. They do work very hard on this enormously useful initiative. Let me just say there are two things, two general areas, where it's been enormously useful. One is in doing the types of projects that I'm about to describe, and the other is in developing partnerships with groups that are on the ground making a difference.

Fisheries committee  It's enormously important. The reality is, as the deputy said, that the harbour authorities and the volunteers who run them are an essential part of the small craft harbour program. We have 559 harbour authorities that manage 690 of our 750 core harbours. They collect $24 million annually in revenues, and that is absolutely essential to the running of those programs.

Fisheries committee  I'll add a little bit to what the deputy said at the beginning in terms of what looks like a reduction of dollars on the small craft harbours. The deputy mentioned the core program, which has always been the core program. The A-base is $75 million. The government has, at a number of steps, provided specific injections of new cash.