I think the suggestion that industry could fund this is challenging. Industry, and all of the members probably know this, is under a tremendous crunch right now. We've got major viability issues in the harvesting and processing sector. Industry will contribute the projects, and you've seen those numbers, which is a great testament to the work they do, but to suggest they can fund the centre is not realistic.
The point I want to make, again, on the ACOA funding, is that we reduced the ask to ACOA from $2 million a year three years ago down to $1 million a year, which is a 50% reduction. We went from a request that had 100% of ACOA funding for most of the last 20 years to a request now that's a little over 50%. We looked at our sustainability review as an opportunity to reduce the burden on ACOA and to bring the request down, which we did. But to walk away from the centre cold turkey--and this is a discussion I've had with ACOA--when we're trying to reduce the burden on ACOA, to explore other options.... Stage one is to bring the provinces in. Stage two might be some sort of industry support down the road. You need time for these types of plans and programs to evolve.
In terms of other plan Bs, we've had general discussions, but there is no active plan B right now for this organization, because we're focused on an Atlantic-wide initiative. We've got great support throughout the Maritimes and in Newfoundland and Labrador, and our focus is to keep that. If what we did wasn't good work and it wasn't successful, and if we didn't have support, we'd be happy to walk away. Carey Bonnell will be fine and our staff would likely be all right at the end of the day. We've got a good group of people. But when you've got the support and endorsement that we have as an organization and the need and the merit--you can't debate it; somebody might say otherwise, but you can't debate the success of the centre. That's why we're so vehemently opposed to closing the centre and we've so assertively advocated for the need for the continuation. It's about industry and it's about the need for this industry.