Fisheries committee  Could you rephrase the question?

Fisheries committee  I don't know if I have a good relationship with DFO, but I don't think they saw this as a high priority objective. We need to give a message that it is a high priority objective.

Fisheries committee  I wouldn't frame it that way—

Fisheries committee  Yes, that certainly happens.

Fisheries committee  Yes. Generally, as processors, you're using your financing tool. You don't have banks that will lend you money. You don't have friends or family.... You have to get the money somewhere. As to what the cost of that is, I couldn't tell you, but I would say that the cost is the in

Fisheries committee  I would be very supportive of that idea. I think that would help, in conjunction, possibly, with banks; it would take away some of the risk for banks and such. I'd be very supportive of an idea like that, yes.

Fisheries committee  The quota is determined by the market and a big player in the market is the Government of Canada for the PICFI program, which I support because it's a willing buyer and a willing seller. However, there are—

Fisheries committee  There are consequences to that. Previously, I would say that they got the low-hanging fruit, so they got the guys who just wanted out. Now, it is harder to get the quota that is there to be sold, so this is driving prices up.

Fisheries committee  In a marketplace for somebody who was selling quota, yes, it would be. It drove it up, as well as other factors, but it is a market. It fluctuates. Right now, it is around $90 a pound, specific to halibut, so it has come down quite a bit from $130, from just a little while ago.

Fisheries committee  You would get one pound of halibut. Sorry, I should explain that. You get a percentage of the TAC.

Fisheries committee  Yes, you don't—sorry.

Fisheries committee  That's right. You're buying a percentage of the TAC, the total allowable catch, whatever that is at that point. Right now, we're at a point where TACs are somewhat low. That might have helped to drive prices up as well, in anticipation that in the future TACs may go up again.

Fisheries committee  As Dan mentioned, there is a proposal where there is more fair share catch, similar to what we have. We used to have a better deal, but it was influenced by [Inaudible—Editor]. You can't expect somebody to take far less money than they can get in the open market. In order to brin

Fisheries committee  At one point, within a span of about 10 years, the halibut season in particular went from 60 days down to six. It kept rationalizing and ratcheting down, and people were increasing.... During that time frame—I believe it was 1987; I was not fishing that day—there was a big storm.

Fisheries committee  Yes. I believe IPHC is doing work with that, specific to halibut. With DFO, I'm not sure.