Thank you, Mr. Speaker and thank you to my colleagues. Mr. Speaker, I am not suggesting that the eastern Arctic fishery is receiving too much support or that the Great Slave Lake fishermen want or need the assistance of the development corporation but what I am saying is that whitefish producers are in need of help at this time. Although the fishing industry contributes $6 million to our economy annually, at this point in time it is not self-supporting and this is not unusual in the primary production sector in the north, or in the country for that matter.

I realize that the level of financial support to this industry may be fixed due to limited resources. However, I would like to see the fishermen given the opportunity to assess the needs of their industry in light of the existing support, to determine if reallocation of what now is primarily a freight subsidy could be more effectively spent. I believe that we can come up with a workable plan which could be implemented quickly. The research has already all been done, we need a plan developed and driven by the fishermen, not by the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation or by this government. One driven by the fishermen that they can agree with and that they can buy into.

I do not have the answers to the questions that need to be addressed concerning the Great Slave Lake commercial fishery, but I do know that we have a renewable, sustainable, high quality resource sitting right on our doorstep which employs significant numbers of primarily aboriginal northerners which, without some organized support from this government, is going to be lost to the detriment of our economy, my community and most importantly, the fishermen.

The reason that the commercial fishermen of Great Slave Lake are here in the Visitor's Gallery today and are not out fishing is because this, Mr. Speaker, is an industry in crisis. Thank you.

-- Applause