Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the witnesses for staying around.
Let me first ask a question about the National Energy Board and the $6.5 million that has been assigned for the assessment of the Energy East pipeline, as well as the proposed Shell deepwater well.
As I understand it, NRCan spends that money in advance and recovers it from the...The minister mentioned that it's recovered from the industry. Why do you have to spend it in advance? How does that work?