Thank you very much for the question.
I have to say, the honourable member always has ideas, and we certainly appreciate getting them.
We have to do a post-mortem on what has worked and what hasn't worked. You mentioned specifically the number of seals we have and that our seal population is healthy, that we've done some public media campaigning, and that the notion has disappeared.
Well, I can tell you that the notion hasn't disappeared, because it was still being sent around by personal e-mail in the European Union when I was there. The special interest groups are still spreading that kind of rumour.
One interesting story that I had heard happened back in the 1960s, and it is still being used. It was about the guy from Prince Edward Island who was asked to pay $300 to torture a seal while the special interest groups filmed it. This issue didn't start yesterday, obviously. It has been ingrained in people's minds for a long time, and it's very unfortunate.
Anyway, what I can say is that we have a plan to go ahead. We're going to continue. There are some people now, the regulation writers, as a result of this vote.... There'll be regulation needed, and there will be the interpretation that will be used to write those regulations. We'll be looking at that to see if there's any way we can have some flexibility for the Canadian seal hunt, and then, of course, we have said we will take this action to the WTO. We know that's a long process, and we have said that to the European Union.
The other thing is the perception out there that the Canadian seals are only hunted for their pelts. More and more Canadian seals are being hunted for other reasons. There are other uses, other opportunities. That is an area that we need to pursue as a government to support the Canadian sealing industry; we need to find other uses and find new markets.