Fisheries committee  Yes, it's what we're used to because it's been in place. I believe you just cannot have two, three or four—or even just two—different regulatory regimes. This is a tried and true regulatory regime. Sometimes we disagree with it, too, but this has been developed over 50, 60, 70 a

Fisheries committee  I think so. My opinion is that it would be unacceptable. There's one law, if I can put it—

Fisheries committee  Mr. Battiste, I'm not a lawyer like you. Still, the one regulatory regime in this industry works best. I think it would just add to confusion and stuff like this. I don't know why you'd actually want another regulatory regime to be developed, unless you're going to make massive

Fisheries committee  Well, at least in the commercial season it's the same. Every commercial fisherman, whether it's a communal commercial licence or a commercial licence, has to fill out a daily logbook. Logbooks have to be turned in once a month and the data is entered and so on and so forth. As I

Fisheries committee  In the commercial season, yes.

Fisheries committee  This I don't know. Again, we don't agree with this. There is no accountability here. Certainly I don't think DFO is involved in the monitoring of the catch rates. This creates, as I pointed out earlier, a big problem. There's no accountability for what's coming out of the water.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure. There are numerous organizations and, again, if I give you a guess, it's just approximate. I simply don't know—15, 20 possibly. Some are multispecies associations and some are just lobster associations. I simply don't know the number.

Fisheries committee  Really, it's just to be accountable to members, try to provide the members with information and maybe bring forth some ideas, try to engage in science, dependent on the availability of money and such, especially on the science side.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure. I know our association—

Fisheries committee  Well, our association has, I think, seven or eight from the Native Council of Nova Scotia.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure if it's communication. I just think it's the level of activity that's taken place. Certainly, what's happened up at St. Marys Bay particularly with Shubenacadie is a large amount of product in pots in the water, a large amount of product being taken out. The other tw

Fisheries committee  I think it's just for the continuity of the fishery. I'll just look at southwest Nova. You have seasons, you have pot limits and you have certain conservation tools being used, whether they be escape hatches or size limits, and so on and so forth. It's all being run by DFO. The

Fisheries committee  Yes, the communication. We simply have to be there to put our views forward and have them fully vetted. Will there be disagreement? Absolutely. You can't ignore the fishing industry or any other industry when it comes to these kinds of talks when you're changing the landscape on

Fisheries committee  Mr. Arnold, you're talking about having the one regulatory regime. I know we've had numerous talks with the minister even over the last three months. We've had maybe five or six calls, and at every call that is one of the linchpins that is always talked about, one regulatory syst

Fisheries committee  Madam Gill, having aboriginal fisheries officers is a good idea. The key is that they're enforcing the same, one regulatory regime. Again, I know it sounds redundant, but you can only have one regulatory regime. Thank you.