Fisheries committee  I like the analogy that I own my backyard but the city has caveats on how big the fence can be. I think the province and Canada have a similar arrangement in terms of the property being the province's and Canada having that overarching responsibility for fisheries sustainability.

Fisheries committee  Sure, I can a little bit. Briefly, the policy contained provisions for the implementation of the fish habitat protection program, including the “no net loss” policy. Some of those provisions were essentially that there was a need for integrated management and that there was a need to recognize the other users.

Fisheries committee  To respond to the comment about keeping it exactly the same, what we're saying is that it's the application, not the wording. To that point, if there were an efficient process that integrated the fisheries management objectives with the provincial fisheries management agency inputs earlier, that would bring a logic to the process that was more efficient.

Fisheries committee  Good afternoon, members of the standing committee. Thank you for the opportunity to present on the Fisheries Act on behalf of Manitoba Hydro. To give you brief background about myself, I've been a fisheries biologist for the last 31 years, starting in 1985 with the Manitoba fisheries branch, performing environmental impact assessment work for Manitoba Hydro projects on the Lower Nelson River.