Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and to all the witnesses for appearing here at this late time slot.
I'm once again quite shocked to hear from another panel of witnesses, most of whom had significant concerns about the bill—albeit some had faint praise for it. To me, it shows that the Liberal government did not do its homework before bringing this bill forward and did not meaningfully consult with the people who will be most affected by it. That is certainly what we are hearing panel after panel, meeting after meeting. It will be interesting to hear the minister explain that in a couple of meetings from now.
I want to go to the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Mr. Wilson, I think this bill, quite frankly, was drafted with the port that you represent in mind. I think we've certainly heard that some of the provisions in the bill will be extremely onerous for smaller ports that do not have your financial capacity, the number of employees, or the ability to set up some of the mandatory requirements that have been included in the bill.
You did mention your concerns with the one-size-fits-all approach, but could you maybe quantify for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority what your estimate is of the number of employees you would have to hire or the amount of money you would have to spend to come into compliance with the new requirements in the bill, including reporting and setting up of mandatory committees and that sort of thing. We've heard some ports were looking at its$200,000 and requiring multiple new employees. I'm wondering if you have a number.