Fisheries committee  First and foremost, it's necessary to recognize that the federal government has the final say over laws and regulations that govern fisheries. We can't figure out why the province is able to make laws and regulations that would normally have to be approved by the ultimate fisheries authority, in other words, the federal government.

Fisheries committee  I'll give you an example. They had a very serious problem in Europe after the Second World War, but they took the steps to fix it. Obviously, the problem can't be fixed without doing some damage to the environment. When I asked the department to act more quickly, I was told that it would have an environmental impact.

Fisheries committee  I would say that the most transferable measures are those that bring all of the stakeholders to the table. The problem we are having in Quebec right now is that people aren't cooperating because it penalizes them to do so, and so they are disregarded. They aren't even taken into account.

Fisheries committee  The problem goes back to 1950, when the practice began. Unfortunately, the dump was shameless and unregulated. People at the time didn't seem angered by such practices; they simply tolerated them. Luckily, since the 1980s, the public has become much more aware of the practices and voiced strong opposition.