Fisheries committee  We have the full sovereignty to do it. What changes is that NAFO now has a lever. NAFO now has the thin edge of the wedge. The European Union knows this. They will use it. I ask you to recall what I said about what Chairman Arias Cañete said. They believe that for a straddling

Fisheries committee  We share your view. We want to stand up for conservation and long-term sustainability. We believe it is possible that one can achieve that kind of agreement in NAFO with other contracting parties. We think this particular clause is a clause that has provided the thin edge of the

Fisheries committee  I'm not agreeing totally with your conclusions. I'm agreeing with the process that you've described.

Fisheries committee  Correct.

Fisheries committee  I'll try to deal with your concern. I think if both Dean Saunders and Mr. McDorman—Mr. Saunders never having really been involved in the negotiations—had their druthers, they wouldn't have this sovereignty clause in there. But it's there. They seem to feel it's something they'd

Fisheries committee  Thank you. That's exactly my point. We've been doing that for years. We can do it--

Fisheries committee  I don't want to say that because there may have been people who made a decision that we don't want to have fights any more; we want to have peace. We want to move together positively, and if we show trust, we expect them to show trust. Whether that's delivered on the other side o

Fisheries committee  Correct.

Fisheries committee  Cooperation, absolutely.

Fisheries committee  Our meeting with Premier Williams was at his request. We have not sought meetings with any other premiers or any other government.

Fisheries committee  The letter we sent to the Prime Minister was copied to all of the provincial premiers in Atlantic Canada.

Fisheries committee  When you talk about silence, I haven't heard anything. But what they've said to Premier Williams, what they've said to the federal government, I don't know. Their interests obviously are different. When we talk about Canada being the coastal state of the fish stocks on the nose a

Fisheries committee  Thank you. One of your questions is why is Canada doing this, and what is Canada getting out of this. I don't know. I can say, though, that I do know that there is a view now that standing up for Canada's rights, being forceful, has been perceived as not being effective. The way

Fisheries committee  This can get a little technical. I'll try not to get too technical. We have been asking for three years for the government to do a thorough clause-by-clause analysis of the NAFO Convention, the new amendment, to see where the subtle little changes have come in. There are a lot o

Fisheries committee  The status quo isn't perfect. As we said in our letter to the Prime Minister, we think the agreement should be renegotiated. We think it needs significant amendments. It's long been identified that the major problems were the objection procedure, and there was a need for a bindi