Thank you, Chair, and welcome to our guests.
If I might just take this opportunity, Mr. Cooper, of course I'm from the riding of Prince Edward--Hastings and chair of the eastern Ontario caucus, so quite naturally a lot of your responsibilities fall in close proximity to a lot of concerns in our particular region. And let me say right now that in my normal course of responsibilities there's a lot of interaction, as you would expect, among crowns and defence and justices. As a matter of fact, I attended a retirement for Justice Byers just a short while ago, and without exception, your region has an unbelievable reputation for effectiveness and efficiency. It's one of the very few regions where there is not a huge backlog, simply because the work is performed very well. So let me thank you on behalf of not only my colleagues but all of your partners in the judicial process. Obviously you're able to work together very effectively as a team, and I think we all win on account of that. So let me take this opportunity to thank you very kindly on their behalf.
The one thing that did disturb me a little bit--and of course we're not necessarily exposed to some of these statistics unless we're asked--is 32 outstanding LTOs in the eastern region. Could you give me a brief summation of how long it's taken to gather these people? And where do you see us going? How many DOs would you pursue in a year or over the course of five years? Do you anticipate any change in this pattern as a result of Bill C-2?