Fisheries committee  Is Mr. Gardner suggesting the creation of 350 licences for the quota shareholders in our area? Again, it boils down to capacity. There are issues about sustainability, and they are well-recognized issues. On the transferability of quota among participants, even today you cannot temporarily transfer a quota from a traditional licence to an aboriginal licence, from an aboriginal licence to a corporate licence, or vice versa.

Fisheries committee  I think Mr. Gardner has misinterpreted what has gone on, even in the distribution. The licences were created equal, but the quota shareholders haven't been punished. If there were 22 quota shareholders on one licence and 14 on the other, the licences were adjusted to meet that.

Fisheries committee  You know what, since the panel thing has come along, as people have said, once it's done and they tell you it's done, it doesn't matter--it's over. So you just have to get along, because that's the way it is. But as soon as there's an expectation or there's blood in the water that something can change if they just turn ignorant and start jumping up and down and screaming bloody murder, it gets to be in a really bad way.

Fisheries committee  I could talk a little bit about.... I could talk a lot about it.

Fisheries committee  Yes, I know. I'm going to be very quick. With regard to the biomass projections, we've had a wonderful set of scientists. It started when we brought the trawl survey over in 1996-1997 with Mikio Moriyasu and the gulf-based snow crab assessment unit. In about 2002 or 2003 the Scotia-Fundy region took over its own science assessment with Dr.

Fisheries committee  I guess I can speak to that. The price is an interesting.... I know that you gentlemen and ladies are looking at the snow crab fishery in Atlantic Canada, including Newfoundland, which has a price problem. We feel that to some extent we have the same problem. When you bring in large volumes of a product that is sensitive, that product needs to be processed in a short period of time.

Fisheries committee  Merci. The independent panel report came out in 2005, just prior to the fishing season. The recommendation on the 50-50 was not accepted by the minister. There were a series of meetings that were held after that to discuss how that was going to be implemented. The eventual recommendation was the 50-50, as discussed.

Fisheries committee  While the panel report was largely implemented and a success story compared with most government reports, it wasn't wholly accepted. The panel report recommended sharing the resource 50:50 between permanent and new corporate fleets. The permanent fleet was a composition of traditional and aboriginal fleets, which were roughly equal partners.

Fisheries committee  Je m'excuse. The point is that there are three groups. As Leonard said, there was no recognition of the aboriginal fleet being part of the traditional fleet. Roughly, it meant that instead of being one-third, one-third, one-third, in some cases there was a disproportionate amount given to the temporary access, in the sense that the net result was 30-30-40, as opposed to 33-33-33.

Fisheries committee  I have just one more paragraph and then I'll get to the bitter end for you. I'm sorry about this. You know that Minister Shea decided to change the idea. I'll go through it as quickly as I can. Minister Shea decided in 2009 to fix the equity licences as established following the panel report in 2005.

Fisheries committee  Excuse me as well. I'm not exactly at my best right now. We're in the middle of fishing season, and I've just spent three days on two different boats trying to harvest lobster and snow crab at the same time. I was up until two o'clock in the morning trying to write what I was going to say to you folks today.

Fisheries committee  If I could just defer to Leonard, he'd like to start, actually.