Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. That's a hard question to answer. We're still not 100% sure what led to the events down there. We didn't condone a lobster plant being burnt or a van or a truck being burnt or anything like that. Again, I will respectfully say on behalf of the RCMP that it's their jurisdiction, not ours.

Fisheries committee  I don't see what you're speaking to, in our membership, on racism.

Fisheries committee  That's a good question. That depends on how bad the stock got. If we saw a decrease of 20% to 25%, we would have to look at some sort of new conservation measure. When we did the buyback and the reduction of traps in 2009-10, in some areas some of our LFAs were suffering 20% to 25% reduction of catches, as Mr.

Fisheries committee  It would be up to the law to charge that individual.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the very important question. I just recently signed impact statements for the courts on P.E.I. for violators who were charged with fishery offences on P.E.I. Our board of directors some time ago passed a motion at a board of directors meeting that we would sign a victim impact statement, that whoever was the president of the association on Prince Edward Island at the time would sign a victim impact statement regardless of the event.

Fisheries committee  We're not going to condone anything like that—

Fisheries committee  Also, at whatever port it happened, I would expect that under the harbour authority, representatives on the board of that respective harbour authority could do something along those lines. We would allow law enforcement to.... We can't personally charge anybody.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for the question. Yes, it's happening in certain harbours where non-indigenous fishermen are helping indigenous fishermen do the capture. I'm not involved in it myself. I don't know people who are, but I know it is going on. Maybe our counterpart in Cape Breton knows more about it over there.

Fisheries committee  We listened to witnesses. We did the same thing. We met with Chief Bernard and Chief Gould from Lennox Island and Abegweit, on P.E.I., on October 2. To my knowledge, sir, nobody's given us a definition of moderate livelihood yet, and I certainly haven't heard a definition of moderate livelihood here this evening.

Fisheries committee  I don't mind answering that one. Depending on the definition of fishing out of a regulated season and on the number of traps, it could be more lucrative depending on where you go and what your competition is like. If your competition is down and you have 50 to 100 traps, you could probably build that trap to its maximum size—say it was 50—and haul the traps probably four, five or six times a day.

Fisheries committee  It absolutely did. It was a bitter pill to swallow for some of the harvesters in area 25 at the time. You're absolutely correct. Nobody made any money there, or very little money, for a couple of years. After taxes and stuff, they probably didn't make any. But the measures that were put in place on behalf of the fishermen in that area—we're talking escape vents, carapace size, releasing of bigger females—a lot of that stuff played a part in where the stock is today.

Fisheries committee  I would say the demand on the fishery is stronger now than it was 20 years ago. I would also like to mention, as Mr. MacPherson did in the presentation, that when we went under ASLM to buy up existing licences and do trap reduction, part of the reason we did that was for the sustainability of the resource.

Fisheries committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. MacPherson and I will be splitting the presentation. Good evening, everyone. The Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association would like to thank the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans for the opportunity to present during this challenging time for the harvesting sector in eastern Canada.

Fisheries committee  We're not seeing as many now as we did in 2013-14, and we think that's on account of the weather in the 2015 winter. It was a really harsh winter, and we figure that some of the stock must have been killed off. It seemed to be a little bit more predominant last year than 2016-17, but we'll have to see what happens.

Fisheries committee  It's a great question, but to my knowledge, there's been no cost analysis done on P.E.I. yet.