Absolutely. Thank you for that question.
Mr. Surette was a joint appointment by me and Minister Bennett from Crown-Indigenous Relations. One of the things we heard from commercial harvesters a great deal was that they wanted to be at the table. We of course are negotiating nation to nation with the first nations communities. We wanted to make sure, though, that they felt their voice was heard. The appointment of the special representative is there to actually foster dialogue between the first nations communities and the commercial harvesters to make sure that everyone's voice is heard, to make sure that we are absolutely engaged with the commercial harvesters.
Mr. Surette is a well-respected member of his community. He has experience in working with the fisheries in the past in terms of difficult situations in fisheries, particularly in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. He brings a wealth of knowledge to this table. The other thing that he is going to be able to do is that he will be coming back to Minister Bennett and me with an interim report in December, as well as a final report in March, with possible ways forward to help us bridge these gaps.
Commercial harvesters and first nations have fished together for generations. The divisions that have happened over this issue are difficult, and we need to make sure that we are doing everything we can to bridge those gaps and make sure that we can have our communities meld back together again.