Fisheries committee  I don't have a sense of the cost. It will cost. It costs to have this, but there has never been a certified fishery that hasn't had conditions attached. We won't have an idea of how these conditions will affect our fishery until we go through a pre-assessment. I mentioned traceability.

Fisheries committee  I would prefer it, and where it has happened, it has happened because people looked over the brink and didn't like what they saw. In the Bay of Fundy we're running at a 100-year high. People feel everything is good. In Quebec, which has done well, and in Cape Breton, which has taken a lot of initiatives, they were driven to the brink.

Fisheries committee  Actually, I find the current minister quite supportive of the fishing industry. Our provincial minister said many times the status quo is not an option, and I think we have a good working relationship. He's also our MLA in our area. He's a go-getter.

Fisheries committee  When you say “lowering the exploitation rate”, are we talking in terms of buyback? To me--

Fisheries committee  I have spoken at length to my association and to the lobster committee. I'm quite, shall we say, “green” in my group, but I, for one, feel quite strongly that we could lower our number of traps. We fish 300 traps. We could lower our trap limit. It's very unpopular with the fishermen.

Fisheries committee  Well, in district 36, which we deal with and which runs from Fundy National Park to the U.S. border, excluding Grand Manan we have 178 lobster licences. Grand Manan has roughly 130. District 35, which is from Alma around to Digby, has 95.

Fisheries committee  Districts 35, 36, and 38 each catch about 1,400 tonnes of lobster annually.

Fisheries committee  In district 36, I would support it. I think district 35, which is the same size in terms of water volume, has 95. They have about half the fishermen we do. I would like to see our numbers at around 145 fishermen in district 36. I would like to see a reduction. The reason I would like to see a reduction is that these challenges the industry is facing are going to cost us money, and I need to have, as a fisherman, a little better income in order to deal with the costs that are associated, for example, with traceability.

Fisheries committee  Sorry--

Fisheries committee  As I mentioned, we have a list of issues that are facing our fishery. They are issues that require action, and my opinion is that the industry should be dealing with these issues, but when we talk about eco-labelling, traceability, quality of product, overcapacity, compliance, carbon footprint, or species at risk at a big table, we get a diversity of opinions.

Fisheries committee  I do not—

Fisheries committee  Yes, it is. I do not support ITQs. I say they're the default position when decisions cannot be made by a group. And I am optimistic that decisions could be made by a group if a mechanism was found. But when the minister has 100% total authority to make decisions, how do we do more than advise as an industry?

Fisheries committee  My thought on this, and I've been through it many times, is that I would like to see a board.... I take the FRCC as an example. There's one aspect lacking. The lacking is that the recommendation of the board should go to the public at the same time as it goes to the minister. The minister, as you say, is accountable to the people, and the minister is the people's access to overturn a decision of the board, but the board's recommendations are public.

Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  The Fisheries Act contained a lot of things, but to my understanding there were two things we really needed. One was that it would provide an opportunity to deal with what is termed the free rider issue, which I explained earlier with the wharf example. For example, if we wanted to do a little extra science in the lobster fishery, there is no mechanism.