We have learned through the Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38, and also through near-daily announcements, that a huge number of federal scientists will be fired in the coming weeks and months. One of your mandates is to protect the fish habitat. You have signed several bilateral agreements. For example, the Canada-Ontario Agreement Respecting the Great Lakes Basin Ecosystem specifically addresses habitat protection. I am wondering if Fisheries and Oceans Canada's mandate will change because the Fisheries Act will have been transformed to the point where it will not be possible anymore to protect fish habitat. We will not have the scientists to do the inventory, if you like, of fish stocks. Some stocks may collapse if their habitat is not protected.
If we do not have this protection, if we do not have the scientists, and if we do not have the mandate to protect fish habitat anymore, how will that change the mandate of your commission? How are you going to change the way you operate, if this information, this data, or the scientists, are not there anymore, if Fisheries and Oceans has lost its mandate?