I will not deny that our industry has been involved in the spread of species in the past. Some of that goes way back, and you can see by looking at me that I might not have been around to see all that happen.
In recent years, with the things I've been involved in, as I've watched them come in--particularly insect pests and diseases--they have not been spread by us. They have been introduced largely through the shipping industry in packing material from Asia, if we want to point fingers. We are the ones who deal with the fallout.
I have a couple of examples. We didn't bring in the Asian long-horn beetle that is known in this part of the country, yet it affects trees across the province and could go wider.
The worst one that I've seen in the last number of years is the emerald ash borer. Again, it was brought in by the shipping industry. It has a huge impact on tree growers nationwide. It's very close to home, because I see acres and acres of beautiful finished trees that are being cut down and shredded at the nursery because there's no market for them any more, if they haven't been killed already. That has a massive economic impact, and now growers are looking for alternatives. What are they supposed to grow?
I don't know if I need to defend myself and our industry. I think we are being very proactive now in preventing that.