Dr. Ballem and Monsieur Michaud, I'm struggling a little bit with this idea of giving away a public resource to folks who might make private profit out of it in the hope that there is some economic benefit down the road. I hear the argument that this caused some great development and potential development. Are there other aspects of municipal government jurisdiction where governments give away something? Do we give away property? I guess we charge permits...we talked about permits.
I'm struggling here, as you can see, because this whole idea that we give away something the public owns in the hope that private enterprise might turn it into something else is a little troubling in the back of my democratic socialist brain here. Have you had those kinds of conversations in your jurisdictions?