Finance committee  Thank you. Fisheries are extremely important to our regions of course, whether in the Maritimes, Quebec or British Columbia. For the regions, this sector represents at least 33% of the GDP. We must also remember that there will be no tourists this year, which will make fisherie

Finance committee  According to the information I received, we are waiting. Usually, there are no applications for temporary permits for workers, but because of COVID-19, this application has been added. I cannot comment any further. That is the information I have to date.

Finance committee  However, we still don't have a date of arrival and we would like to solve the problem. We would like to have workers so that we can process as much lobster as possible.

Finance committee  Are you talking about the industry's requests for workers?

Finance committee  Right now, we are trying to make sure that the workers in the plant can accumulate all the hours they can. That's why we wanted to start as soon as possible, so that workers can accumulate those hours. The next step is what concerns us, because we are all sort of dealing with un

Finance committee  Let me use the example of the shrimp fishery, which starts on April 1. When sectors are ready to go out to sea, they can go. The same principle could be applied to other species, by opening the fishing season on April 1 and, as soon as a port has no more ice, let the fishers go o

Finance committee  I was referring to snow crab in particular. The U.S. market represents more than 75% of our market. So if there were more right whale incidents and we had to close the fishery, we could lose the U.S. market, not only for this season but also for following seasons because of the M

Finance committee  Right now, applications for temporary permits for foreign workers have to be done. Our workers still have not had access to their work permits. So we still do not have a date for their arrival, at which point they will have to be quarantined. To an extent, we have had some luck

Finance committee  I'm here on behalf of Mr. Gagné, so maybe Mr. Gagné has, but I haven't.

Finance committee  It's the same answer. Maybe Mr. Gagné has, but personally I was not involved.

Finance committee  Good afternoon, members of the committee. My name is Maxime Smith. I am replacing Jean-Paul Gagné, the managing director of the Association québécoise de l'industrie de la pêche. The association represents sea product processors. Unfortunately, Mr. Gagné could not be here this

Finance committee  Would you like me to start from the beginning, Mr. Chair?

Finance committee  Okay. COVID-19 started in Quebec just as processing plants were getting ready for the new season. The fact that the fisheries sector was quickly recognized as an essential service allowed a number of industry players to mobilize and implement measures to limit the spread of the