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Thank you, Chair.

Author Stephen Covey said that it's important to mark passages in life, family and business.

He said that the values of organizations are important and I think we need to mark a passage today.

There's a person on our committee who has served a long time, probably longer than any person in Parliament on any committee. He has certainly served the longest as a parliamentary secretary that I know of. In a system that is constrained by the adversarial nature in which we find ourselves, he has always tried to find common ground. He's made it a pleasure for me, and I think my colleagues on all sides, to come to this place. He has been the author or the progenitor or the colleague of many reports that have come from the committee, and he has done something in a world where we truly strive to preserve a resource not just for ourselves but for our children and our grandchildren, and that is the fisheries.

I just want to pay tribute to our friend and our colleague Randy Kamp. We're going to miss you here and we're very grateful for the work you've done over 11 long years. Thank you, Randy.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

In that regard, as Bob said it's a shame these comments are in camera. Are we able to get unanimous consent to take the comments public starting with the tribute to Mr. Kamp?

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd also like to thank our witnesses.

Mr. Plourde, since you're in Quebec City, I should tell you that I spent a lovely summer there, back in 1982, working in Édifice H, not far from where you are. I'm probably the only federalist from British Columbia to have worked in the department responsible for constitutional affairs while René Lévesque was in power. As the Prime Minister and many other Canadians have said, after my own hometown, Quebec City is my second favourite city.

You provided quite a few statistics on Quebec fisheries. I have a number of questions for you about that.

Could you give us more details on the projects carried out under our recreational fisheries conservation partnerships program, which is now in force in Quebec? Projects are meant to protect fish habitat.

Overall, the program was useful in improving practices in Quebec and protecting fish habitat. Do you know how many projects were carried out under the program? You don't have to tell us, but if you do know, we'd appreciate that information.

Did you say you have over 400,000 members?

Do you know if those visitors are from Quebec or outside the province?

A significant chunk of tourists clearly go to Quebec for the recreational fishing. Is there any coordination between your federation and Quebec's tourism agencies?

Maxime Bernier, the Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism, and Agriculture), is a huge supporter of Quebec. In fact, he's originally from Quebec City. Is there any coordination between your federation and his department tourism-wise?

You should be especially pleased about all the measures supporting the tourism industry in this year's budget.

Thank you kindly, Mr. Plourde.

Never was so much information imparted in such a short time. Thank you both.

I have a couple of short snappers. Heather, you mentioned an acronym: NSLC. I wasn't sure what that was.

Okay, got it. Is the Clean Air Act the act John Fraser brought in that was supposed to have put an end to acid rain? Is that what you were referring to, Walter?

Okay. That is disappointing. I know that was one of John Fraser's crowning achievements.

You both mentioned the partnership program. I was pleased to hear it has achieved desired results, or even exceeded best expectations. Can you elaborate on two or three ingredients of that program you think are effective and might be replicated in other DFO programs?

Heather, before I respond to Walter, do you have anything to add to that? I was looking for sort of best practices or best ingredients that might be replicated.

Let me start from a premise that government can never do enough, and we would all like to have more inspectors if we could afford them.

There was a fellow witness who spoke from Manitoba a couple of weeks ago who said that we can never have enough inspectors, never enough police, but that, if we encourage these partnerships, if we encourage recreational fishers on the ground to develop a culture where poaching is simply not tolerable in the community, and if we can encourage those people to help promote the best practices, then we may still not have enough inspectors, but we'll have gone a long way to helping the fish and promoting the fishery. What do you think of that?

Yes.