I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today. I want to get into some of the concerns that were raised in the previous panel.
I really couldn't understand some of the concerns raised around Clearwater. I do understand it is a big deal, but it's also a proud deal for Cape Breton when we see leadership taking on billion-dollar deals.
I want to come in with some of the questions around the offshore licences. Here is one of the questions I received in my correspondence: If the conversion of the offshore licence into some other category is allowed, i.e., regulated under communal indigenous regulations, could this, in the future, also be done to owner-operator licences and enable corporations to use indigenous bands or consortiums to circumvent the owner-operator provisions of the new Fisheries Act aimed at protecting owner-operator principals?