With apologies to skeptics, the answer is very much yes. I think that for the most part, many people in the industry very much took the view that DFO moving into this management role would be a positive thing for the industry. I think that many of the environmental organizations we've dealt with certainly felt, and I think still feel, very much the same way.
I have to say that part of that is because of dissatisfaction with the provincial government. There is, to be honest, a bit of a view that anything would be better than that, which I think is quite unfair. Nonetheless, that's the sentiment that was expressed to us. Also, I think there is an acknowledgement that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has significant capacity with respect to resource management, science, and a variety of other things and that we will be an organization well placed to manage the aquaculture industry going forward.
With the exception of a number of people, typically in the general public sessions, who just felt that DFO should be disbanded—I guess that is the best way to put it, in the most charitable way—I think that by and large, the level of receptivity to the new federal role was fairly high, with plenty of caveats as to how we should do what we are about to do. I didn't get a whole lot of “a pox on all your houses, it shouldn't be you” kind of commentary.