Fisheries committee  Yes. I would start by saying that our organization has talked about that a lot and I don't want to create an impression that we're not fans of DFO. We see the need for DFO. We don't know all the details, but our perception is that DFO has been a staunch and stalwart defender of

Fisheries committee  There are lots of good studies about fish mortality with fishing, and we've come a long way, through local groups, like the one these gentlemen from Swan River represent. In the province, we communicate continually about how to handle fish properly and we've been doing that for 2

Fisheries committee  I think the way it's been borne out is that, from what I've seen in Manitoba, it creates partnerships. There are two things here. First, there's this fishing passion. To my mind, this is an intelligent, targeted grant. It's targeting a bunch of us passionate kooks who spend too

Fisheries committee  Yes.

Fisheries committee  Thank you.

Fisheries committee  On the first question, the funds for our clubs, they get the odd provincial grant but very few. The money is 90% private. It's membership dues. They put on local fundraisers as Mr. Connolly and Mr. Borowski were just talking about in Swan River. Our clubs do the same things. They

Fisheries committee  I'll keep it really short and pass this one to the Swan River guys because I think they know a little bit more about this than I do. One thing I will say the province has worked really hard at is Tourism Manitoba. They have done a really great job of promoting our fishing in othe

Fisheries committee  Our view is that it had no effect. I knew a lot of people who took those jobs. We were all graduating about that time. One of the few groups that were hiring at the time was DFO, and so a lot of my friends and different people I know took those jobs. The approach didn't work. It

Fisheries committee  In our view it's really important because, if you want to engage people in conserving water and lakes, if you want to engage the citizens in water quality, if you want to get people caring about endangered species that live in those waterways, the best way to get people engaged i

Fisheries committee  I think it's incredible. I am not sure what Mr. Connolly and Mr. Borowski would say, but I think it's amazing. Thanks to groups like those gents in Swan River, I don't think it has ever been better. I'm going fishing this weekend in Ontario, and I was talking to a fellow out th

Fisheries committee  Hundreds of thousands.

Fisheries committee  In terms of DFO's presence in the province, I can't remember which years it was when they had staffed up and had a lot of enforcement of people on the ground out here. I do remember at that time I was working with farm groups, and it wasn't seen in a positive light. To me, and fr

Fisheries committee  I want to thank you all very much for giving us a chance to speak to you today. It's quite exciting to be here to talk about fishing, one of my big passions and one of the great passions of the organization I run at the moment. I represent a group called the Manitoba Wildlife Fe

Environment committee  I would agree. I think it's a measurable value that our president comes from Winnipeg; it's huge. What's so strong about our board of 10 Canadian citizens is that they're everyday Canadians like me, and half come from the city and half from the country. It's really interesting be

Environment committee  I'll keep my comments very short, because I think Mr. Scarth and Dr. Boyce should take that more than I should. I'm just going to speak to the local side. There are mechanisms out there. There's this program called ALUS. The magic of it is that it engages the local people at th