Thank you for the question.
We've been working for quite some time on these accord act amendments, so I can speak to the policy rationale, who we heard from and what we're ultimately driving for in these proposed amendments.
It had been long recognized that there was a gap or lack of tools within the accord acts and within this space for both levels of government to use when it came to marine conservation. In other words, the ability for the accord ministers to prohibit activities in the accord areas for the purposes of marine conservation or to cancel a licence for the purposes of marine conservation just didn't exist. The accord acts were written at a time before marine conservation was a thing. These provisions are new tools. They're consistent with the new tools that were brought in under the Canada Petroleum Resources Act in 2018 and are really intended not to make the decision to establish MPAs across the country, but rather to provide the tool within the accord act for a decision to be taken around prohibition and cancellation.