Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome to everybody here and Mr. Minister.
I have a couple of questions I'd like to ask. Whatever time is left I may end up splitting with my colleagues.
The couple of areas I'd like to ask about pertain to aquaculture and the dollars you talked about in the budget. On page 130 of the budget it talks about $22 million over two years and improving regulatory certainty as well as the regulatory science to establish performance-based environmental standards.
I'd like to go back to one of the questions I asked the last time you were here. There is a study out there in the Public Library of Science that talks about the impact of sea lice from aquaculture operations. They talk about the decline in wild salmon being different in areas where there are aquaculture farms compared to areas without them. They say it “may” be related to sea lice. I know there's some science that suggests it may be the other way.
With this money for aquaculture, how do you see the science side helping not only aquaculture and developing a very important industry for our region, but also protecting the wild Atlantic salmon?