Fisheries committee  In some of the interviews I've done with some of the harvesters and the processors, I've asked them to consider two questions. One is why it is that every spring in this province we find ourselves in this battle over negotiating the price. I can go across the gulf and they don't have it.

Fisheries committee  The numbers were put out there that we as a government were willing to put in 30% of the cost of restructuring that industry. The word we've heard is that we don't see this huge amount of money we would require to buy out licences and commit to downsizing the processing sector forthcoming.

Fisheries committee  Well, there have been different numbers that have been thrown out there, anywhere in the range between $500 million to $700 million.

Fisheries committee  I think the quota is going to be determined by the science. DFO is going to continue to do that. I think the way we have to move is that we have the same amount of quota as is dictated by DFO, but we have fewer people catching it. The example I used before is that of somebody with a 35-foot boat, with just a small quota of 10,000 or 11,000 pounds, plus a small quota of cod and something of capelin.

Fisheries committee  I think that's a really good question. It's a very interesting question. There's no doubt about it: when politics is involved in this kind of stuff, you sometimes make decisions that aren't always the right ones. There's no doubt about it. If there was a community asking for a processing licence, I'm certain that we as a government probably provided that--equally, the harvesting sector....

Fisheries committee  Yes, 3,200, so.... It was a poor decision, but in light of communities that were looking for plants and looking for jobs for their citizens and for people who wanted to get into the boats to go harvesting, that was what was provided. Hindsight is always a wonderful thing, but we didn't always make the right decisions.

Fisheries committee  This MOU was signed last year. I believe it was on July 11. They've been in meetings. For the last little while they've been involved in price negotiations, but they did meet last week. My intention is to ask for an update on that in short order. I can't give you a precise timeline, but I'll tell you one thing: this industry and the people of this province cannot suffer through another two or three years of the kind of stuff they've suffered through this year and the previous year.

Fisheries committee  The federal government has been involved in the industry renewal strategy. They've worked around some of the capital gains issues. I think the MOU resulted from a dispute that happened around the pricing of shrimp. The season didn't get under way last July, and as a result parties agreed that....

Fisheries committee  Through the MOU process, DFO officials have been at the table. I've been in politics since 2003, and I know that if I want to find out what information is on the go, it usually gets back to me, so I'm assuming that this is getting back to the federal level. Also, I met on February 15 in Halifax with Minister Shea and her officials and indicated to her that the MOU is under way, and that we would be coming forward to the federal government.

Fisheries committee  You mentioned the 63% quota reduction. The way our fishery is structured right now, if we were to have something of that size of a quota cut in our crab sector in this province, I can tell you we would be in serious trouble; as I alluded to, the crab has become the major species by which income is generated.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. We recognize when people are polite and impolite. I didn't sense that with you at all, not at all. I suppose that in one way the solution is a simple one. It's simply to say that what we need is a downsizing of the number of harvesters and the number of processing facilities.

Fisheries committee  In terms of what?

Fisheries committee  If you look at whether the parties have lived up to it, I think we have lived up to it as a government. We've been very stringent in our licensing policy: as I said, we have a licensing board that's independent, and recommendations are brought to the minister. We've only had one case in which our ruling was different from what the licensing board had committed.

Fisheries committee  If you mean from the MOU process, I can certainly do that. When we go back, we'll forward a document to the committee. We will consolidate some of those points.

Fisheries committee  I don't think so. I think right now there's a court ruling in the Saulnier case saying that a licence can be used as collateral. Therefore...well, let's just take the example of something I heard recently. A gentleman purchased another licence; I won't name the agency, but he paid 11% interest on it.