Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for being here this afternoon.
Mr. Fowler, I feel for you today. You're defending something that is tough to defend, and you're put in a bad spot. There's no question about it.
You mentioned, in your comments that the minister's been meeting commonly with the industry stakeholders, yet when we talk to the industry stakeholders, they say the total opposite. They say she met with them on March 9, which is correct, but they actually met a year earlier, when she requested the industry get together and put forward a name for them to work with, and with the ministry and minister down in the U.S. The name was David MacNaughton.
What happened in that year? Why did that not happen? Industry put the name forward. They did everything the minister wanted them to do, and then it just went silent. Can you explain what happened and why she decided not to conclude? Was there advice given from the department not to move forward?