Thank you, Madam Chair, and good morning, colleagues. Thank you to our witnesses for joining us today.
My first question is for Dr. Ross.
Thank you for joining us today, sir. Thank you for your contributions to the study of our ecosystems and water systems in southern British Columbia, in particular, a highly relevant experience that informs our discussion and our study today.
I'd like to drill into this question of the economic impacts of plastics as we were just hearing. We're often presented with the argument about the negative environmental impacts of regulating plastics in various ways. However, from a differing perspective, and as a representative of a coastal community that has millions of visitors come every single year, we see the way in which plastic pollution on our coastline and in our waters is actually an economic threat to one of our core industries in the visitor economy.
I would suggest that's true not just on Vancouver Island but everywhere that we have beautiful coastlines in this country, whether that's elsewhere on the B.C. coast, whether that's in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, whether that's the Bow River in Alberta, or indeed on the shores of Lake Ontario.
In that context, Dr. Ross, could you speak to the volume of plastic pollution that we have in our waterways? Would you have any comments you could offer about the economic harms that plastic pollution causes to our local and regional economies?