There are two key criticisms that we heard on the formula. This is why I was a little bit surprised by the earlier comment.
The first criticism is the fact that the formula does not recognize the need to maintain the non-core harbours that we want to divest, pending their divestiture. If you look at the formula right now, there is nothing in that formula that really recognizes that some regions have a large number of these non-core harbours to maintain, pending their divestiture. So they get nothing for that, and this is an issue for those regions.
Actually, the two smaller regions that we have, Central and Arctic and Quebec, are the two most affected by this. This is where they would require an in-flow, an additional budget, in order to maintain these non-core harbours. This is the first criticism that we've had about the formula.
The second one is the fact that it does not recognize recurring dredging. As you know, each year in the spring we do have to redredge several harbours in order to provide access to the harbour. The formula, as it stands right now, does not recognize this need for additional dredging. In fact, one of the regions that is probably the most affected by this, because of the need to redredge annually in proportion to the budget, is Quebec. The formula does not recognize that need.
So these are the two main criticisms that we've had over the years with respect to the formula.
The third criticism is more technical. We're using five criteria right now, and all of these five criteria are correlated with one another. If you have a large number of core harbours, you also have a large number of harbour authorities, and you also have a large number of harbours in total. It's quite likely that the size of the fishing fleet in your area is also very high. Therefore, if you have one region, a big region, that scores high on one variable, it also scores high on all of the others. Therefore, the formula tends to advantage the larger regions to the detriment of the smaller regions.
These are the three key criticisms that we've heard about the formula so far.