Fisheries committee  The associations that have joined together in this alliance have mostly concentrated on the lobster industry. There are implications for other industries, and other industries might join or prepare some form of proposal in light of, or inspired by, this. But these associations ar

Fisheries committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, committee members and members of the public. Thank you for inviting us. I'm going to speak to you today on behalf of André Martin, our president. He obviously can't be here as he is fishing for lobster. I'm going to provide you with some brief backg

Fisheries committee  We've often heard that the crab supplied by inshore fishermen was of lesser quality. We've often wondered why. Plant managers claimed that the quality was lower. We wanted to check to see why. In doing that, we realized that practice of some fishermen was to select the highest qu

Fisheries committee  It means they're put back into the sea. Very often a large percentage of what is put back into the sea won't survive.

Fisheries committee  Studies were conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans over the period from 2004 to 2007. They showed the net incomes of inshore lobster fishermen. And you're right, Mr. LeBlanc, the lobster fishery represents the largest share of fishermen's incomes. There's also the s

Fisheries committee  As we mentioned at the start, the goal of inshore fishermen is to be able to fish a number of species. The 1,200 fishermen in New Brunswick want more opportunities for a reasonable standard of living. Over the years, the snow crab fishery has clearly proven to be crucial to achie

Fisheries committee  There have been a number of licence withdrawal programs in the past. Normally, licences are withdrawn and the resource returns. So we have to be very careful. As a number of studies show, you have to make sure you have conservation measures in exchange for improving what you leav

Fisheries committee  That will definitely depend on circumstances and the type of program proposed. With regard to lobster, for example, conservation measures have proven to be very effective. There is the minimum size question, for example. There are all the conservation measures that would leave mo

Fisheries committee  Our comment referred to a comparison with other fisheries that have the same type of territory and have 10 times more harvesters and 27 times more traps in the water, and they are actually managing to foster a sustainable fishery. Of course, natural cycles in those other fisherie

Fisheries committee  I apologize. Could you repeat that, Tilly?

Fisheries committee  It's quite obvious that a lot of the sales of the products we fish in New Brunswick and in Atlantic Canada depend quite heavily on the United States. The last few years have made it difficult for people in the States to go out with their families and have either snow crab for sup

International Trade committee  Can you hear me?

International Trade committee  Yes, that's correct.

International Trade committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I don't know if the vice-chairs Mr. Hoback or Ms. Ramsey are present today. We thank you for the invitation to appear before the committee today. For a dozen years or so, I have worked for the Maritime Fishermen's Union in Shediac, New Brunswick.

International Trade committee  Yes, of course. I would like to quickly say two final things which are very important. First of all, the strategy for lobster and shellfish is to create a triangle of demand: in Asia, Europe and in North America. We depend entirely too much on North America, which represents ab