Fisheries committee  I'll say very much the same thing. It's very difficult to deal with it. There are market implications, if we're seen in the rest of the world to be going out and somehow culling. I think we have to be very careful. It has to be a very strategic thing. But is it an issue? Of co

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. [Proceedings continue in camera]

Fisheries committee  Yes. From my standpoint, the big thing is that we do have some fisheries that can be very selective. The one that comes to mind, of course, is the seine fishery, because you're bringing them beside the boat in a net, and you're brailing all the fish onto a sorting table. It's not

Fisheries committee  Honestly, Mr. Hardie, Owen really summed it up well. Those are the big issues. We all agree that those four are really the big issues. I don't think you can add too much to that. I do agree it seems that the easy one for DFO to deal with is fish management, because you can see

Fisheries committee  I'll just take it for a second before I turn it over to Mr. Bird. The climatic changes and the human impact changes are real. I think everybody believes that. In the river, especially with something like salmon, which have to return to a natal stream, one or two degrees in those

Fisheries committee  For the most part we need the science done, first of all. I think there are long-term matters, climatic and everything else, but in the short term I think we need the science, and we need it to be responsive so that we can harvest the excess amounts of fish and bring the economic

Fisheries committee  You know, in fairness, probably not; for most of us, I think, as we've gone along, being deemed an essential service during the pandemic has been very useful. It has allowed us to have our boats out harvesting and bringing the fish back in. It was tough in the plants, keeping wor

Fisheries committee  I would have to say it's a combination; it really is. There are fewer fish returning, but even when they do return—over a million returns to the Skeena, and the commercial sector got to harvest at a 1.2% level—the catch is very tiny. Sometimes, then, the fish are coming back an

Fisheries committee  I just touched on that. The licences are not moving. You couldn't go to a bank and get money. We have made deals and so have other companies where we've brought in some indigenous fishermen to become partners with zero down payment. We've given them a boat and licences to become

Fisheries committee  I think the big thing is that there is no certainty. We've had very poor seasons. We don't know what allocations are going to be. We don't know anything about economic opportunities that are being transferred either inland or coastal to indigenous communities. There are treaty ri

Fisheries committee  Not that I'm aware of.

Fisheries committee  Mr. Chair, they haven't, but I think it's very difficult. It's a changing dynamic at all times. I think that we do need some certainty, whether it's an indigenous allocation or something that's split, something so that people can make investments, because no licences really hav

Fisheries committee  It's available. You have it.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. My name is Phil Young. I'm vice-president of fisheries and corporate affairs for Canadian Fishing Company, which is the largest processor of wild salmon in B.C. I'd like to thank the committee for the opportunity to address you once again and to meet some

Fisheries committee  I don't think the owner-operator ability would change anything, and I think Canada has strong things about bringing factory boats into our waters. It is harder for smaller communities. If they think they're going to build a plant in every community, they will find it just.... A