Fisheries committee  In the west, yes, whether it was Alberta, Saskatchewan, or whatever.

Fisheries committee  They're not able to make the income they've been making in the last ten years.

Fisheries committee  I think there's another issue that rarely gets mentioned, and that's the capacity of organizations to deal with their rank-and-file membership. While we're three, there are many smaller organizations throughout the region. We always complain about the lack of capacity. We opera

Fisheries committee  We established a committee of fishermen to work on the development of a rationalization plan, but as far as we're concerned nothing will go forward at the PEIFA until there's a vote by the fishermen in each LFA to approve it or not. If they approve it, we'll go forward, but it wo

Fisheries committee  All I can say, sir, is that we've had no input into that at all. We found out when you did, when we read the newspaper.

Fisheries committee  A lot of fishermen who were working out west in the winter months and coming back to fish in the summer months had been laid off and their jobs have not been renewed.

Fisheries committee  It's a mix of parallel programs, as well, through rationalization, in terms of perhaps eco-labelling, ocean-to-plate process, where the nature of fishing will change, where you're fishing for the market as opposed to fishing for the quantity, as we have been doing.

Fisheries committee  Well, you're right, Mr. MacAulay, in terms of the EI situation for this year and possibly the next couple of years. In terms of the rationalization, we see it as a three-pronged approach: cash infusion by the federal government; our province is on record, essentially, as saying

Fisheries committee  No, it would be completely voluntary, absolutely.

Fisheries committee  The way the fishing is conducted, there might be a different application to each LFA, based on particular circumstances in that area, but the repayment would come.... We calculate, for example, in Prince Edward Island, to get out 20% of our licences, a repayment over 25 years wou

Fisheries committee  Those who remain in the industry, yes, after the people are bought out.

Fisheries committee  The option, of course, Mr. MacAulay, is that the catches for those who remain will increase, corresponding to those who leave.

Fisheries committee  Believe me, it hasn't gone through the whole process of having a vote by the fishermen themselves. This is just a recommendation at this point, and it stems from those discussions around our lobster round table.

Fisheries committee  In Prince Edward Island we haven't signed on to it yet, simply for some technical reasons. It's something we are still discussing; it's just that the timeframe hasn't been appropriate for us at this point.

Fisheries committee  To date, with the process we've undertaken in Prince Edward Island, the average price has been $200,000, which retires the core licences completely. This is based not so much on the market value of the licence but on, first of all, getting it out of the water, and second, supplyi