Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen of the committee, hello. In order to make the most of my speaking time, I will just dive in straight away. Since 2017, the presence of right whales in the gulf has been front and centre for all of the stakeholders [Technical difficulty—Editor].

Fisheries committee  As I said, in order to make the most of my speaking time, I will just dive in straight away. Since 2017, the presence of right whales in the gulf has been front and centre for all of the stakeholders who are in any way involved in the fishing industry in Atlantic Canada. The sno

Fisheries committee  We can provide them with a great deal of information. The fishers see the impact of actions first-hand and are the first to observe changes. I'll respect the chair's opinion.

Fisheries committee  That's an excellent question. Yes, we have noticed some changes in that regard. The scientists are much more open with us and share much more now than they used to. It's a great initiative, the scientists are being more transparent.

Fisheries committee  Yes, it would be. Peer involvement is good. We're not against the idea. However, we're not being consulted at all. I think it would be advisable to give the industry an opportunity to provide input on the peers we'd like to see at the table when matters have a direct influence

Fisheries committee  Those are excellent questions. I would say that it did change. There are so many staff changing at the department. From one phone call to the other, you don't have a clue who you are talking to. I'll give you quite a good example of that. An advisory committee has been put in p

Fisheries committee  I'm sorry. That's my fault.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Small, you just named one of the options with ENGOs around the tables—playing games when we definitely don't know exactly where they're heading. You have more and more of them around. We don't know how implicated they are with the department, but that's definitely an option t

Fisheries committee  Thank you for your question. We have actual proof of that. In 2018, if I'm not mistaken, we challenged the quota allocation, but the department ultimately decided otherwise. When we subsequently questioned the approach and the reason behind the decision, the department backtrack

Fisheries committee  That is indeed true. Department staff who work on the science always say that they have done their jobs; they tell their managers what the science says, and management makes the decisions. Sometimes, staff are uncomfortable with those decisions, so it's clear that there really i

Fisheries committee  I don't think we have bad communication with the department. We talk to people there, we can discuss issues with them, but after that, the door closes—and what goes on behind that door, we have no idea. We usually have to be insistent. We have to keep knocking on the door. It's r

Fisheries committee  You hit the nail on the head.

Fisheries committee  That's exactly right. The department needs to open the redfish fishery as soon as possible, but the answer we get from the department is that redfish aren't the right size for commercial fishing nets.

Fisheries committee  That's right. The department needs to open the fishery and examine the options. I realize that making fishmeal may not be desirable, but surely, it's possible to do something with redfish. The commercial fishery needs to open as soon as possible. That's the first step. Furthermo

Fisheries committee  In order to protect market access, producers in our region asked fishers to make an extra effort. Fishers agreed to go out approximately three times to see whether they could cover the costs of those trips. If not, they will likely stay in port. I can tell you that they didn't do