Thank you.
I have a question, Mr. Alexander. Something I'm confused about is that in your earlier presentation to the committee you presented the CANDU and the AECL scenario as very healthy and positive. Yet with all of the so-called renaissance going on, AECL holds no contracts or bids right now.
You mentioned this chicken-and-egg problem for the government. They've floated the idea publicly of a sale, and Mr. Lamarre commented on this. If potential bidders know that the thing is up for sale but don't know who is going to buy it, it creates a very difficult scenario to actually go out and sell, thereby lowering the price that Canadians can expect to get for the asset into which we've poured some billions, whether it's $20 billion or $15 billion or whatnot.
Why has the government gone about it this way? It seems confusing to me to not have any contracts in hand, which lowers the price, and then announce that you're going to sell it, which then causes more uncertainty--I would assume lowering the price—and no demonstrated ACR, no demonstrated site, which you called for. Is the demonstration site so critical for Canada to get a proper price for what Canadians have invested into this industry?