Fisheries committee  We are moving to see that fish harvesters would be responsible for the acquisition of equipment gear tags starting April 1. We have established a protocol with industry. It's on our website. We've been having a number of meetings with industry to explain the requirements of that protocol.

Fisheries committee  There are discussions that are under way among fish harvester organizations around measures they may or may not want to come together on and propose to the department, in terms of changes to the management of the fishery, to avoid the kinds of situations that occurred last year in terms of poor quality and volumes of landings and so on.

Fisheries committee  This change, more fundamentally, is about seeing that harvesters who participate in fisheries should be taking on responsibility, and cost responsibility, for those measures for their compliance with conservation stipulations, tags being one of those types of requirements, and that they should be providing that kind of a marking of their gear at their cost.

Fisheries committee  Thank you very much for the questions. I'm going to respond to the question concerning the Pacific salmon stamp, and others will speak to the rest of your questions. For a number of years we've had an arrangement in place through which a portion of the proceeds of the salmon conservation stamp support a contribution that the department provides to the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

Fisheries committee  The department is continuing with its work with respect to the establishment of marine protected areas. As you may know, there are eight marine protected areas that are currently in place. There are areas of interest that are under development for seven additional areas. In addition to that, there is work that is under way with other federal partners and the provinces to establish a network of marine protected areas to look at how, in all the various efforts we're doing, whether they are marine parks or marine protected areas or undertakings by provinces, they contribute towards Canada achieving the goal of 10%.

Fisheries committee  Concerning the Pacific salmon conservation stamp, there is a similar program in place involving commercial harvesters in British Columbia who contribute, I believe, something on the order of $10 per harvester towards either the Pacific Salmon Foundation or, if they so elect, the T.

Fisheries committee  First, as I think you know, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans does not have a mandate for the promotion of fish or seafood products or aquaculture products. That responsibility is with the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In the case of lobster, the department has been active, as have been the Atlantic provinces and Quebec, in supporting the formation of the Lobster Council of Canada, which came together in 2009.

Fisheries committee  As you've noted, this office is being closed. The DFO is a partner in that operation, one of five agencies that have been part of this initiative. Suffice to say, though, that this closure is not going to be something that'll affect our posture in terms of the fish protection program, and we're not looking to reduce resources as a part of this.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Given the late start, I'm going to dispense with opening remarks. I'll introduce my colleagues, and then I'd ask Mr. Huppé to give you a bit of an overview of our report on plans and priorities in order to enable the discussion to follow. With us is Trevor Swerdfager, our assistant deputy minister for program policy; Jody Thomas, our deputy commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard responsible for operations; Mr.

Fisheries committee  Perhaps I'll deal with some of the fisheries aspects of the question, and then I'll turn things over to Jody with respect to the coast guard. The use of new technologies is a key element of our strategy for modernizing fisheries management and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the services we deliver to fish harvesters.

Fisheries committee  I have to be the first to admit that we don't necessarily have a standard set of definitions. What we do have is a continuum of categories of fisheries—what we call competitive fisheries—where there is an overall TAC established. Participants will catch as they can until the total limit is taken and then the fisheries close.

Fisheries committee  Our plans are to be working with fleets that are interested in introducing such mechanisms. Our plan is to pursue that where fleets are interested in establishing individual shares. It takes different forms as well, where we have individual quotas. For example, with crab fishing off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, we have measures in place working with the industry that would allow for a fish harvester to combine the equivalent of three quotas within his enterprises and fish that.

Fisheries committee  I want to start by referring back to the presentation Roch Huppé provided and the reductions you would see to the small craft harbours program, which are the result of the sunsetting of temporary measures that had been established, such as the funding to provide for emergency repairs for significant storm damage to harbours in the Atlantic.

Fisheries committee  It was over four years, and that has also sunset. What we're really looking at now, and what you see in the RPP document, is the core A-base funding of the small craft harbours program. There are no reductions to the program other than the phasing out of planned sunset programming.

Fisheries committee  I think it's a question for Ms. Thomas.