Mr. Chair, I appreciate the question.
My honourable colleague is fully aware of the importance because he was with me and other members on the committee when we landed there. He would fully agree that our presence there as a group was vitally important. It is fair to say that we highlighted the issue that is vitally important for Canada.
Especially when we came out of the first meeting, we all saw that Juno Beach was pretty well filled up with younger people. They were speaking French, so they were from France, I would guess. That was vitally important.
We went out for the interview. We had national, regional and local media. We had a lot of news media there. I think Frank would agree and Rachel and Luc would, too. They were with me and I appreciated it so much. It was a combined effort of everybody in the Parliament of Canada to indicate how important we felt it was. The interview was vitally important. I think Frank would agree that when the lady at the centre got out right on the highway and indicated quite clearly what this would do to the traffic and all that, having it on the media made it so much better for me when I went to meet my counterpart in Paris. It was obvious that it was highlighted. In fact, as a group, that's what we wanted to do.
I had a great meeting. I think it's thanks to the effort of us all. We had a meeting with my counterpart. I actually spent over an hour with her. She indicated that she was going to start the process with the regional political officials in the area in order to put a group together to sit down and see if we could come to a proper resolution for Juno Beach.
Without a doubt, that news conference with us all there was vitally important. Now I understand that Juno Beach, the town and the contractor—I'm not sure if I have everybody—will all sit down and try to come to a resolution. It is so vitally important.
Of course, money came up too. My colleagues are fully aware that we don't buy property. We would like to. I know all of us there would like to have just fixed it all up right then, but if there was ever a time for working together as the Government of Canada—and I've been around a long time—that was a prime example of what everybody pulling together can do.
It's not resolved yet. Of course, Frank, you're fully aware that it is under French law. We can't dictate what's going to happen, but I believe, with the way it was put together, it looks very good. I don't think even the contractor really understood what a delicate situation he was dealing with. We never spoke to the contractor, but I don't think there was much of a protest. In fact, I don't think there was much of a protest until we arrived. There was some, but we certainly highlighted it as a group.
Again, I would emphasize the Parliament of Canada working together. That was a prime example and hopefully it will be a great result for Juno Beach and for our veterans, because we all viewed what they were doing. It wasn't put on. These people were right there trying to understand exactly what Canadians did. That's what it's all about. It really would bring you to tears, if you want to know the honest truth. That was basically what happened.