Thank you. You have my apologies.
Again, this demonstrates legislation that is rushed without due consideration of the situation and the approach to the development being undertaken. We have tried to raise these issues with your senior officials and have been told to take it to the committee and discuss it directly with you.
Here we are, and I sincerely hope you listen to our advice.
In short, the legislation before you has clearly been rushed in its development. While it may be well suited for its original purpose of ensuring that offshore petroleum development is conducted in a fair and environmentally safe manner, it is not appropriate for offshore wind development.
We intend to provide a more fulsome brief to this committee that includes the shared perspective of others in the fishing industry; however, given that we only received our invite scant days ago, we haven't been able to complete this in time for today.
Let us be clear. We have the time to develop good legislation and a gold standard for offshore energy development. We have the responsibility to do it right for our members, our communities and the marine environment they depend on for survival. We implore you to take that time and use it wisely.
Thank you for your time.