Thank you very much.
To our witnesses, thanks very much for your presentation and for accommodating our antics here in Ottawa with votes and what have you.
There is a kind of constant theme here. We had the Honourable Robert McLeod here prior to both of you, and there was something that he said quite clearly when he talked about the economic hit on communities that MPAs can cause. He was talking about the delaying tactics used by a lot of environmental groups and others when it comes to oil and gas approvals, which would have helped his community, and you may be able to relate to that, Mr. Kariya, to yours in the north. He says that the delays go on for so long that they make whatever the project is economically unfeasible.
Ms. Burridge, you commented on the amount of time it takes for MPA approval.
We can't have one without the other. Some rule changes were made by the previous government to make the approval process more streamlined and what have you. I think there seems to be agreement about this in a lot of areas from a lot of people on both sides of this issue in regard to helping with this. What can we do to speed up the approval process but still go through the proper channels? There's no doubt about it: this MPA thing isn't going through the same process as, say, an oil or gas well. The government is hell-bent on basically ramming this through in no time flat.
Mr. Kariya, could you comment on that and include your experience? Have your community and the Great Bear Initiative been consulted in the proper way, in your opinion?