Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I want to welcome the minister and his officials.
In the minister's statement he alluded to the fact that there's been an increase in enforcement staff on the west coast from 162 to 176, and 12 new habitat monitors. So that's an extra 26 positions on the west coast. Then I look at the budgetary chart, at the FTEs, revised for 2006-07 to 2008-09. For 2006-07 you're showing 10,490, going down to 10,447 in 2007-08, and then down to 10,385 in 2008-09. So that's a decrease of 105 full-time equivalents, if I'm reading this correctly: 43 next year, and 62 the year after.
So even though the minister is saying you're increasing your numbers by 26 positions on the west coast, it looks as if you're in a decline across your departmental numbers for the next two years. How do you explain that?