Fisheries committee  The proposed regulations from our partners at DFO would specifically address the co-mingling of legally fished elvers in Canada and those that are imported. It would ensure they remain separate. It would provide us with a great deal of clarity about which one is which and how we can enforce accordingly.

Fisheries committee  I'm not sure how to answer your question, because it went to different places. You mentioned 2017. I didn't reference 2017 myself. Perhaps we're talking about shipments to China versus Hong Kong. I don't know. Can you rephrase the question, and I'll attempt to answer it?

Fisheries committee  I would suggest that if we had enhanced regulations, they would tremendously assist with the interdiction, yes.

Fisheries committee  Yes, but I don't know if it would have the same impact there. It might, but I can't really give you a guarantee.

Fisheries committee  I'll answer the first question. In my experience, yes, in some situations increasing fines helps correct bad behaviour. We've seen that in the past.

Fisheries committee  I really can't comment on the second question.

Fisheries committee  We're not investigating the use of new tools. I believe that we have the tools that are necessary to identify the commodity in question—again, outside of traceability, for examination purposes. That's how I'm responding to the question.

Fisheries committee  I don't think I said there's no proper regulatory regime. I think enhancing the current regime would help. Second, I think this question would be much better answered by DFO.

Fisheries committee  I can't comment on that.

Fisheries committee  I've heard that statement made before. I have not verified it, to be honest. I hear a lot of statistics being shared. One challenge that does exist for us is that elvers and eels are both identified using the same code, which is called an HS code in the system, so I'm cautious about trying to discuss statistics, because we're not counting the same things.

Fisheries committee  There is no export ban on elvers that are imported from outside of Canada. There is a ban on elvers that are fished within Canadian territory.

Fisheries committee  I can't comment on that without looking the numbers, to be honest, and analyzing the numbers.

Fisheries committee  We can certainly look at the data and provide you what's available to us that would be reasonable to answer the question, yes.

Fisheries committee  I'll go back to my previous answer to this. If we had a proper regulatory regime in place and a permit requirement, it would help us tremendously in identifying illegal shipments and give us the authority to actively pursue non-compliance.

Fisheries committee  Presumably, as with any other commodity, if permits were required by law, they would have to be submitted to the CBSA upon export. We would presumably have a copy of that permit available to us for verification and could react accordingly, should there not be a permit included in the export transaction or submission.