Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you, lady and gentlemen, for your presentation this afternoon.
Just following up on what Mr. Bellavance was asking, the information that I and others around the table have been provided is that on a weekly basis, some 4,000 metric tonnes of specified risk material are necessarily disposed of in Canada. It strikes me as being a gargantuan amount, and I know, Mr. Evans, that in your earlier answer to Mr. Bellavance, you touched on the process. So my questions are coupled.
How safe should the citizenry feel that the deep burial process, for instance, is fail-safe? Second, relative to other countries, particularly the countries within the European Union, is our process as modern, as efficient, as cutting-edge as theirs? Or are we somewhat behind the Europeans in the area? And last, vis-à-vis the federal government's role and the exploration or the research into the potential of using SRM as a biofuel, what, if anything, is the federal government doing by way of incentives to the private sector to advance that ?