Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen, for coming here today and providing evidence.
I want to take us all back to 2004, if I may. For the record and as a matter of interest, I'm from Fort McMurray. I was running a nomination battle, trying to win the possibility of running for the Conservative Party. I represent High Prairie, which means I actually represent about 30% of the province, quite a piece. I met a gentleman by the name of Gerry Williscroft, who sat down with me for half an hour and told me all about the Navigable Waters Protection Act, which I had no idea of at the time, and told me all of the headaches and some of these stories that you have given us today.
I made a promise to him that I would bring it up, and I did, actually. Once I was elected, I brought it up to the Liberal government by way of a letter in 2004. Then when we formed government, I brought it up again. When I was appointed parliamentary secretary, I sent a letter to the minister saying the same thing. Indeed, shortly after that, in December of last year actually, the Prime Minister and the minister both talked to me about it. And here we are today; we've received a letter from the minister asking us to deal with this.
So that's where we come from. I wanted to use that as an example of politics being local and that it indeed comes from the top, and in this case it did. I was very pleased to see this process take place.
But today I don't really have any questions. I would like to hear some more examples, if I could--and not to say that I brought this up. I know that Monsieur Laframboise and other people have brought it up. We're very serious about it, because we know it affects people at the very local level, and that's why I wanted to bring it up. It's very important to us in government.
Could I hear some more examples of things you find and have heard of being very strange indeed?