The nine-month clock for listing—that's the time from when the minister provides the COSEWIC assessment to the Governor in Council—starts a nine-month clock to finish the listing process, which requires consultation. We have found that where consultation involves extensive consultation with aboriginals, particularly where there are land claims and where there are economic issues—and my colleague from Fisheries and Oceans could probably speak to that more—this nine-month clock is extremely difficult. It's very difficult to get across the north, for example, for consultation with all the communities that could be implicated by a decision on polar bear listing. Nine months is a very difficult challenge.
In fact, the agreement we negotiated with Nunavut to respect their land claims actually requires more than nine months.
That's in the listing phase. The other phase, critical habitat, is, as I said, a challenge in the early stages of the recovery planning.