Fisheries committee  Thank you very much for taking our presentation.

Fisheries committee  I'll ask my technical expert to answer that. I'll supplement, hopefully, anything he misses.

Fisheries committee  I'd prefer if he didn't comment any further. I don't want to try to participate in an economic discussion at that level. However, I believe that tourism is a wonderful industry for all of us in British Columbia, and not just on northern Vancouver Island. Overall, it's a wonderful

Fisheries committee  I don't believe there is any negative effect. The flow of fish up and down will continue to be up and down over the years. Last year we saw one of the biggest runs of fish ever in the Fraser River, fish that were not expected there, and I'm sure there were lots of so-called envir

Fisheries committee  It's a very tough question to answer from a practical standpoint. I'm aware there were various studies done. There was one study a couple of years ago that came out of the University of Alberta. It was proven by people who looked at the results of that particular study that it wa

Fisheries committee  I certainly do.

Fisheries committee  I can. I think it's very irresponsible of any organization or any individual to jump into something like this and make flat statements that can harm an industry or harm the people who work for that industry, and harm the whole province that we have here, depending on the resource

Fisheries committee  I'm aware that the only way that aquaculture can expand is by developing new sites and/or getting permission to increase the volume, or the population, in their existing sites. If they're spending most of their time negotiating with other organizations that are against their exis

Fisheries committee  I'm aware of this, and I'm also aware that Marine Harvest could spend its time and efforts much more profitably if it were handling new sites and also the expansion of the population in the existing sites, which is an important request of theirs. They'd like to increase the popul

Fisheries committee  Like anything else, any other business decision we make in life, any political decision we make in life, you have to show me that it's working, and if they can show me that it's working, I'm not going to resist it. I don't take a Luddite approach to anything. If there's a way of

Fisheries committee  That's correct. I'm a businessman. I was a logger. I was a miner. I did a lot of work. I've never worked as a fisherman—that's about the only thing I could've worked in that I didn't. As a businessman, I understand that you have to be able to pay for your costs, and that the cos

Fisheries committee  Yes, certainly. They've done it in the major centres as well, with articles in the Vancouver Sun, The Province and the The Globe and Mail. The only really positive newspaper that covers the area in a practical sense is the National Post. I believe they have a good handle on what

Fisheries committee  That's a question that needs to be answered. My take on it is that the potential is there as long as the regulations were widened enough to allow new fish farms. But as Neil has pointed out, there has been very little activity in the creation of new fish farms over the last few

Fisheries committee  I don't think there would be a problem in finding additional land. All sorts of land is available that has different designations. Some of it is parkland, some is industrial land, and some is zoned for forestry and will probably continue to be forestry associated. There would be

Fisheries committee  I'm not an expert on what the cultural desires or leanings of all the people would be. I can only judge it as a person who functions in the area, as first nations people and non-first nations people have done for the last 50-something years. Because of that, my understanding of i