It may not surprise you I'm not sure I agree with you. It's a trick question. We're confusing an oil tanker moratorium with a moratorium on major projects.
But no, the deputy tells me that about 170 of those staff reductions were in the habitat protection area. We went, as I say, from 63 to 16 offices. They were closed and that speaks to public confidence, too, Mr. Donnelly, in the sense that in Mr. McDonald's riding in Avalon they can't find somebody at an office who can answer their questions. It creates, I think, an unnecessary concern.
Of the 135 new scientists we committed to hiring with the money that budget 2016 gave us, as of April 1 of this year, we've already hired over a hundred of those, many of them working in world-class facilities in your province, like the West Vancouver Laboratory that I had the privilege of visiting this summer.
We're hoping to do a lot more, but the government will take its responsibility to look at some of these major energy projects.... I can imagine, perhaps, you're referring to one in particular, or a couple that may have come by this past summer. We will look at those—