Fisheries committee  We developed the survey in conjunction with the forensic auditors at PSPC, as well as through consultations with industry, federation members, the Fisheries Council of Canada and others, to gain perspective. The intent of the survey was to gain as much information as possible on

Fisheries committee  Because of the way the survey was structured, while we will not drive to the nature of any lease arrangements in terms of the granular detail of how these are structured between the lessee and lessor, we will have an acknowledgement as to whether that type of arrangement is in pl

Fisheries committee  Thanks, Neil. I would build on that. Neil is spot-on. We have taken time to gain the evidentiary basis to understand what is actually transpiring on the water and get a better perspective on that, so that we can subsequently engage our fish harvesters, our licence-holders, and

Fisheries committee  You are correct.

Fisheries committee  That is correct: Fish and seafood processing facilities are licensed by the provinces, and each province has its own legislation in that regard.

Fisheries committee  It's either a Canadian individual or an individual or a company wholly owned by a Canadian, and again, there are residency requirements to ensure that those provisions are—

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. You're correct on that. Registered financial institutions are able to—

Fisheries committee  Those provisions were specifically introduced at the request of the federation and members of the Atlantic inshore fishery, in order to ensure they had access to capital and were not limited in that regard.

Fisheries committee  At this point in time, Mr. Chair, I have not had an opportunity to meet with Coastal First Nations other than a brief introduction this morning on the margins of this meeting. That being said, my regional colleague does meet with them on a regular occasion. I would say that this

Fisheries committee  That was the rationale for which we undertook the beneficial ownership survey. It was because the DFO, at that point in time, did not hold information on the full corporate structure of licence-holders. We undertook the survey to gain that information and to allow us to make info

Fisheries committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, I might defer that question to my regional colleague, although that might be one that we would struggle with, admittedly.

Fisheries committee  With regard to the sale of a licence itself, I do not believe the Competition Bureau would have a significant role. What we have seen encouragement for the Competition Bureau to turn its attentions to is the sale of processing facilities. With that said, the Competition Bureau,

Fisheries committee  I think we have, in part, undertaken the beneficial ownership survey, since we have a factual baseline of information, to subsequently have that public policy discussion within Canada's fisheries—with affected stakeholders, parliamentarians and others—to determine when an appropr

Fisheries committee  I think that historically the Pacific fisheries were developed with a different intent, and different methodology was employed. We introduced, as an organization, back in the 1960s—

Fisheries committee  What I might offer, frankly, is the tremendous value of the perceptions and the information held by licence-holders in identifying those challenges to DFO. Certainly, when we developed the inshore regulations in conjunction with inshore harvesters, their insights into the mechan