Thank you very much.
Thank you to all of our witnesses.
Mr. Gratton, I'm sure you're familiar with the part of the country that I come from, northern Manitoba, which depends a great deal on mining, forestry, and in a smaller part, agriculture.
You've talked about the way the industry is losing out. The way I see it is that the same people, the same communities, the same families that either work in the mines or have some agricultural production or have a relative working in the mill, are losing out tenfold and their livelihoods are at risk.
We've seen a reduction in production in forestry in particular in my area, as well as the movement of agricultural product as a result of the backlog.
Given that this issue is not going away anytime soon, how important do you think it is to have some federal championing of this issue, not only in terms of the short-term solution but also as a longer-term coordinated commitment? How important is that kind of federal championing in this case?