Fisheries committee  Sure, if I may. We do have several different possibilities for people to reconcile their business in the best way they see fit. We have partnerships similar to the buddy-up policy that Jackie explained, which exists in Newfoundland. We have partnerships in some of our lobster and crab fisheries that allow two individual licence-holders to partner up for the length of the season and fish one and a half times the trap complement that is authorized for that particular fishery.

Fisheries committee  There isn't one umbrella organization representing licence-holders in Nova Scotia, but there are several that are quite large and that represent multi-licensed enterprises. The Eastern Shore Fishermen's Protective Association and the Grand Manan Fishermen's Association do represent multi-licensed enterprises.

Fisheries committee  I'd like to speak to the situation in southwest Nova Scotia, where we did allow the five-foot stern extensions on lobster fishing boats. Many of those enterprises also had groundfish fixed-gear, less-than-45-foot licences. When the department made the announcement in 2003 that this would apply in the 2004-05 lobster fishing season, we were scrambling to determine what the spinoff consequences would be on the fixed-gear groundfish fishery in that area.

Fisheries committee  I wanted the opportunity to reply to Mr. McDonald's earlier questions, so this is perfect for me. Essentially, he asked about the department and its willingness to engage in a review or have consultations on vessel replacement policies. Essentially, the department's been very open to that, especially since 2003 when we released our set of 10 principles to screen any proposal against.

Fisheries committee  Certainly it has been raised as a concern by my colleagues and my contacts in small craft harbours. I understand that there is going to be a study by this committee of small craft harbours coming up, so I think I'll leave it there for them to comment on that issue further.

Fisheries committee  In the groundfish fisheries, we did remove the cubic number restriction. Back in 2003, the minister allowed community management boards in the fixed-gear, less-than-45-foot groundfish fisheries to decide their own fate for cubic number restrictions. Since that time we have seen that this is a growing concern—pun intended—

Fisheries committee  That's correct. We've amended the length-overall description specific to lobster vessels in lobster fishing areas 33 and 34.

Fisheries committee  It was actually the lobster fishery in the Maritimes region. In lobster fishing areas 33 and 34 on the southwest coast of Nova Scotia, they have been limited since 1980 to vessels that are no more than 45 feet in length overall. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, people were pushing and at times surpassing that limit, and found that they were able to get away with it by the stern extensions, which weren't being registered in DFO's licensing system as part of the length overall of the vessel.

Fisheries committee  I would like to speak to the consultation process within Maritimes region. Similar to what Jackie has explained takes place in Newfoundland region, we do have annual advisory committee meetings with the nominated representatives of the fishing industry. In addition to that, in the winter months of 2017, Maritimes region undertook a licensing policy review whereby we sent an open invite to every core licence-holder in the Maritimes region to attend open sessions to discuss the licensing policy.