Good afternoon.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to the witnesses for being here. This is extremely interesting in the context of this debate, which is complex and affects thousands of people, entire communities, who are feeling very insecure.
We talked about balance. Ms. Plotkin, I found it interesting that you didn't like that word very much. It can indeed be quite problematic, because we want to protect and maintain all the jobs or create others as well so that the communities can survive. However, it is true that it's not really a balance when a species disappears, because there is no way to make it reappear afterwards. So it's a bit of a difficult balance to strike.
So I would like to ask you the following question. We've heard from many people representing first nations communities about how boreal caribou are not only part of their identity and way of life, but also that a healthy caribou is proof of a healthy forest and that there is no sustainable development without a healthy forest.