Thank you for the question. Yes, you understand our submission.
Our submission is fundamentally that, 10 years ago, Canada chose to follow the existing American model, which is really a litigious, highly bureaucratic model. We believed, based on the track record of the United States of America at that time, that would be mistake for Canada.
Since that time, not only has the federal SARA record, we believe, proven us correct, but so has the most recent Ontario species at risk legislation, because it, too, basically uses now the Canadian federal and the American model, which is, first, a very strong legislative hammer, so to speak, instead of a cooperative stewardship approach; and secondly, the creation of a brand new institutionalized and clearly huge bureaucracy, the end result of which is seldom the actual on-the-ground recovery of species.
I think it's fair to say that there are alternative models, not only in Ontario and not only those demonstrated by my organization in cooperation with other organizations, including both the federal and provincial governments.
The point is cooperation, stewardship, and partnership first, not the legislative hammer and not an insatiable bureaucratic appetite for more resources that do not result in the on-the-ground successful recovery of species.