Dr. Butler-Jones, as someone relatively new to federal politics and this committee, I will say this has been a very fascinating exercise. The need and concept for the project were identified in 2003. A complex partnership plan was worked out in detail in 2005. There was an announcement in 2007. Then at the very end point of this long, complex, and expensive process, the plug was suddenly pulled. I was very surprised to hear you say this is just the government grant process: you're in or you're out; it's black or white. I should disclose that I was the provincial minister responsible for the secretariat that did the complex deals for government with partners in the province of British Columbia. I was very involved with not the details, but the processes. The notion that it's in and out or that we didn't meet the criteria so it's pulled is quite opposite from the process as I know it.
Is it normal, in your experience, that an initiative that has had seven years of evolution would at the last minute be treated as a grant where you're in or out, and there is no opportunity for the lead bidder to work through whatever deficiencies may have been and always are identified in a proposal like this? There are always some things the government wants to be addressed.
You've described this as being simply a grant. Is this normal--yes or no?