Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks, folks, for being here.
I think we've seen that many of us have the same questions, the same types of interests, and we want to talk about retention and recruitment. I apologize if I haven't scratched out everything that has been asked. Some of the questions I might just word a little differently.
You talked about the decline over the last 10 years. I'm really interested in the reasons for that decline. You spoke about a number of factors for the decline, and you mentioned budget reductions. Was there a policy decision to reduce budgets strictly for the reserves, or was it that you were just doing the best you could with the budget you were given?