Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for coming.
On our tour yesterday, and hearing from some of our witnesses this morning, it was well noted that the cuts to science and technical support are going to hurt the people on the ground, whether they're harvesting or they're managing or they're even protecting our marine wildlife.
The big story out today is that the federal government is canning a Mr. Ken Lee, who was an oil spill expert for cleanups and prevention of oil spills.
It's been well noted now that the DFO cuts are going to be pretty brutal in Atlantic Canada.
I guess my question is what are the challenges going to be for conservation when you have so many cuts like that to staff, monitoring, and analyzing? How are those going to diminish the work for conservationists or people on the ground who are trying to get the job done?
That's my first question, and it's open to all of you. If you can be quick with the answers, I'll have another question.
Maybe you can start, Mr. Burgess, by saying how deep the cuts are going to be to Atlantic Canada. You would know that.