What I have seen in all the time I have been involved in this file is a great deal of cooperation and a very integrated approach. Our participation in the Asian Carp Regional Coordination Committee is a step in that direction. We were always on the periphery of discussions. When John Goss approached us and the minister about having Canadian officials, including officials from Ontario, participate, that was a sign of the degree of cooperation that was needed to go to the next step. The work that Becky and Nick and their colleagues had done on the binational risk assessment went a long way to the Americans saying that there is a lot of good research and work being done up in Canada and that everyone can benefit from that.
The other part of the issue is that there's a lot of discussion about the Chicago Area Waterway System, but we have to be very cognizant of the fact that that's not the only way these invasive species can get in. You can do physical separation, but Chicago in and of itself was built on a very marshy area. There are significant other ways, through floods for example, that these invasive species would get in even if a physical separation is done. The cost of that, coupled with the impacts on transportation and other parts of the economy, would be similar to our saying that maybe we should close down the St. Lawrence Seaway system to stop sea lamprey or something like that. It's already there, so where do we go?
The key to this is what Becky alluded to regarding the prevention: education and outreach. We have to get all the information out. This public forum in November that we spoke about will be an opportunity for us to have a very good discussion about that in Canada with folks who are directly impacted because they live along the Great Lakes.