Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank everyone. I also want to apologize for having to run out of the room; something is breaking in Vancouver, and I had to talk to the media about it.
I've been following this for three days now, and I must say I'm impressed by what I'm hearing from everyone. There seems to be an understanding of the holistic nature and the interrelationship of everything. I think the debate publicly has always been either/or—it has be this, at the cost of that—and not understanding all of the ways in which everything is interwoven. So I'm glad to hear you saying that, because it really does help.
I'm pleased to hear everyone talking about science and measurements and monitoring. You know, as the great Yogi Berra used to say, if you don't know where you're going, how are you going to know when you get there? The bottom line is that we need to monitor, we need to measure, and we need to set clear goals and clear targets. So I'm pleased to hear all that.
I just want to ask some straightforward questions. First, you talked about forms of compensation for people who are conserving on their own lands. I know that the ecological gifts program, which came in around 2004, looked at major land trusts that were donated by people who had a lot of money. What about the ordinary farmer who wants to do this kind of conservative farming, who makes sure that he conserves and does all of those things? How do you compensate them for that? Can you give me some really practical and concrete ways in which that kind of compensation can occur so that there can be ongoing stewardship?
Secondly, you talked about restoring a damaged ecosystem in a defined timeframe. How do you see that being measured, and what are the ways in which you can see penalties or other things being imposed if people don't do it in the defined timeframe?
Finally, you talked about measuring your natural assets. I think the precautionary principle in medicine we all agree with, and you're saying the same thing here, which is true. But you talked about measuring your natural assets. How do you do that, and what are the measurement instruments and indicators you would apply to measure that?
So those are my three basic questions.
I think it was you, Mr. Smith, who talked about forms of compensation. How do you see that occurring?