THE STANDING SENATE COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES AND OCEANS
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Tuesday, March 27, 2018
The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans met this day at 5 p.m. to study Maritime Search and Rescue activities, including current challenges and opportunities.
Senator Fabian Manning (Chair) in the chair.
[English]
The Chair: Good evening. My name is Fabian Manning. I’m the chair of this committee and a senator from Newfoundland and Labrador. Before I give the floor to our witness this evening, I would ask that the senators who have arrived to introduce themselves.
Senator Duffy: My name is Mike Duffy. I’m a senator from Prince Edward Island.
Senator McInnis: My name is Senator Thomas McInnis, from Nova Scotia.
Senator Gold: My name is Marc Gold, senator from Quebec.
Senator Ringuette: Hi, Mr. Amos. My name is Pierrette Ringuette. I’m from New Brunswick.
The Chair: Thank you, senators.
The committee is continuing its study on maritime search and rescue activities, including its current challenges and opportunities. This evening we are pleased to welcome, by video conference, a witness who has taken the Coastal Nations Search and Rescue course in Bamfield, British Columbia. Mr. Trevor Amos is from the Harbour Authority and is a Haisla Fisheries Technician with the Haisla Nation Council.
On behalf of the members of the committee, Mr. Amos, I want to thank you for joining us today. I would like to invite you, if you would, to tell us a bit about your training, the course that you took, and certainly some of your search and rescue experience.
Believe you me, we’re all here, we’re all friends, and please feel comfortable as if you’re sitting down and having a cup of tea with somebody in the north of British Columbia. Please feel very comfortable in what you’re doing.
Once you tell us a bit about yourself, some of the senators may have questions for you. Once again, I want to thank you for taking the time to join us this evening.
Trevor Amos, Haisla Fisheries Technician, Harbour Authority, Haisla Nation Council: Thank you. Starting off, I did take the Coastal Nations SAR training, as formal as I’ve ever had, I guess, but my training basically started at a young age with my father in a dugout canoe. It was the first time I remember fishing and going over safety issues and stuff like that. It was a dugout canoe about 30 feet long.
I’ve been travelling up and down our coast since I was 8. That was in 1977. This training in Bamfield was a pretty amazing experience, adding the professional part of it to a lot of the stuff I’ve done my whole life — learning the techniques and then putting them to use as we did.
Not 20 days after the training was finished, we did have two gentlemen go in the water. Unfortunately, we lost one man. But using the techniques that I learned with my co-worker there — I got him on the phone. These guys had been in the water for four hours. The fortunate part of it is that we live right on the water and we were out there within 4 minutes and found the kid within 15. The training was so helpful.
I don’t know what else you want to hear about that. I think the good thing is that the training is there, the funding is there, but it’s kind of a toned-down version of the full RHIOT School, Rigid Hull Inflatable Operator Training School.
That’s what I would like to say. I don’t know what else to really say here.
The Chair: Has that opportunity been given to you to do more training?
Mr. Amos: It will be. Different members of our crew will be taking it. Hopefully on the next round, one of our guys will be going again.
There have been opportunities that have presented themselves to me, personally, through the Coast Guard, because of the stuff that has happened. We had the sinking of a 62-foot vessel that we boomed pretty quickly and helped contain the 1,200 gallons of fuel from potentially spreading all over the place. So the opportunities are there.
The Chair: It seems to me that with the amount that you have had, it has proven to be a great resource even thus far.
With regard to the equipment you use in the north, can you give us an idea of the type of equipment you have there that can help with search and rescue activities? Is that equipment enough? Is it adequate for what you are trying to do in the harsh environment you have to work in?
Mr. Amos: Yes, it can get pretty harsh. We have a number of different vessels. We have two jet boats that we run the rivers with. We have two crew boats. One is a 24-foot aluminum boat, and another 32-foot, I think, or 28-foot. They’re very seaworthy. They’re not set up for search and rescue, as we were never really insured for search and rescue and we never had the training. But those things are presenting themselves and it’s just a matter of time to get the whole team trained.
We have a team of four of us that go to the field all the time, and we’re chomping at the bit to get everybody trained. Having that close relationship now with the Coast Guard, the Bamfield gentlemen there — Tyler Brand and Geoff Carrow — have already sent a little bit of equipment, but we’re still lacking in proper searchlights and stuff like that. But that has been promised, and we’re looking forward to working more with them.
The Chair: Before I go to Senator Gold from Quebec, I want to welcome Senator Mary Coyle, who has joined us. Senator Coyle is one of the new senators, from Nova Scotia. We’re also joined by Senator Rose-May Poirier from New Brunswick.
I will turn to Senator Gold now, who has a few questions for you. Thank you, Mr. Amos.
Senator Gold: Hello, again, Mr. Amos. Thank you for taking the time to join us.
Let me begin with just a very general question. The work that you do is so important. Can you give us an idea of the biggest challenges you’re facing in performing this search and rescue work in your community and in and around your area?
Mr. Amos: The biggest challenge we’ve had so far is that we’ve only had two people go through this search and rescue course and the first person that did it no longer works for us.
Senator Gold: So, you’re the man?
Mr. Amos: Apparently. It was just a matter of luck, being at the right place at the right time, and having the right coworkers. The coworker that I called was just on his way out of town. We live in a small community. There are 700 people in our community. We live 11 kilometres away from the big community of Kitamaat.
It just happened to work out that he was a minute away from our office and we made it to the water quickly. Four minutes, like I said before. We had the gentleman on board within 15.
The biggest challenge is having the right people. You know, we do have a pretty good crew this year, but, like I said, I’m the only one that’s had the formal training now.
The other challenge that I thought of was really there is the full RHIOT school, but ours was the toned-down version of the RHIOT school. Just being on the same equal playing field, having the same chances as others to take the full RHIOT training and then getting the proper equipment.
Like I said before, search and rescue, we do have a SARs team in the town of Kitamaat, but they also probably have to travel 10 kilometres to the dock to where they have to go to get geared up.
The night of November 23, 2017, is when that happened, when the two gentlemen went in the water, and the search and rescue took 45 minutes to just under an hour to get on scene, along with the RCMP. So that’s a huge challenge in itself. Even though we have the search and rescue in town, time is a factor. Time is huge.
Senator Gold: Just a brief other question on another matter. There was a very large scale search and rescue simulation, an exercise, back in last October, I think it was, that involved 15 vessels and four aircraft.
We were provided with information that some coastal First Nations were there as observers. I just wanted to know whether you or any of your colleagues participated as observers and what you learned if you were able to be part of that.
Mr. Amos: That was down in Vancouver area?
Senator Gold: That’s right. The Armed Forces and the Coast Guard.
Mr. Amos: Yes, I was part of that. They rented a whale-watching vessel and I was on board watching it right from where they did everything.
Senator Gold: I think we understand one of the purposes of this exercise was to try to explore how all the different players could work together, because there are a lot of different actors, if you will, in this. Can you share with us what you might have observed or learned? How well are we doing when we try to work together? How can we do it better? Do you have any thoughts about that?
Mr. Amos: That time, the communication — and we listened to everything. They had it over the loudspeaker. Communication is paramount. It’s huge. They had communication between the navy, the Coast Guard, the RCMP and BC Ferries that was involved in that. I’ve always kind of preached that, that communication has to be there with our little team here. That was the best thing that I’ve seen. That’s what I brought back to our team is that communication has to be there.
Senator Gold: Thank you very much.
Senator McInnis: Thank you for appearing tonight. I’ve read there are 60 coastal nations along the BC coastline there where you are and I understand you have four search and rescue organizations. You can correct me if I’m wrong. Do you communicate with each other on a regular basis?
Mr. Amos: When I took the SARs training in Bamfield I ended up meeting a few of them. One gentleman’s name was Stanley Robinson from Hartley Bay who was just probably three hours by boat away from us. The night of the rescue that we pulled, he was on the phone with me. I was standing on deck screaming for this gentleman in the water and my phone rang. So, yes, he did communicate right away that they were ready to come up and help out.
Unfortunately the weather was pretty rotten that night — you know, snow, high winds, big seas — so they couldn’t. Like I said, they’re about three hours a way, but they were still ready to join us if they possibly could have.
Senator McInnis: Where are the voids? It’s a large coastline. What per cent are you covered by search and rescue, the auxillary?
Mr. Amos: I actually wouldn’t know that number. I can’t remember how many. I know we have one station here in Kitamaat. We have one out at Hartley Bay, which is three hours away. Then up in another community called Kitkatla, I believe they have their own search and rescue team. Bella Coola.
So, an exact number I wouldn’t be able to tell you.
Senator McInnis: That’s fine. Look, the Coast Guard put on this wonderful course and that’s great and they’re very good at that, I know, and they sent a container full of equipment and they’re putting on these courses and all this type of thing, yet you said you don’t have a light. They sent goodness knows how many of those.
Is this going to be an ongoing supply of equipment for your group, do you know? Have they said? Will these courses continue?
Mr. Amos: The courses are going to continue and then the ongoing supply, we would hope.
They do have, along with Western Canada Marine Response, a couple of sea cans just outside our community at a place called MK Bay Marina which is owned jointly by Kitamaat Village and a group down in Vancouver.
We had a little bit of trouble accessing that when we had the 62-foot boat go down, because it started leaking fuel right away, leaking diesel out of the tank for the stove and the heater. When we tried to access it, there was a little bit of bureaucracy that got in the way, that we didn’t communicate we were going to take stuff.
To have our own stuff, booms and all that equipment for sinking of ships that have a lot of fuel in it, because 1200 gallons is a lot of fuel to lose and it took quite a while to plug those vents. Like I said, with the gear from the Coast Guard, we had it boomed off pretty quickly and saved a huge environmental disaster from happening in our little stretch of shoreline.
Senator McInnis: Absolutely. Does the Canadian Coast Guard seek advice from time to time from the Indigenous communities? For example, if they’re going to establish a life boat station, would they communicate with your groups?
Mr. Amos: I believe they have started doing that. They did that with Hartley Bay. They’re talking about doing it with the Indigenous Coast Guard auxiliary team here in Kitamaat village, which we’re hoping happens soon. I’ve been kind of spreading the word on that and getting people pretty excited. I’m in contact with Tyler Brand and Geoff Carrow, an Indigenous Liaison Officer with the Coast Guard down in Bamfield. We’re looking forward to that.
It is much needed. We’ve been called on to look for people who have run out of fuel or have broken down, but we need to have the equipment and the time. We have many projects on the go in our little department. We’ve been growing ever since.
I’ve only been here for six years. This is my sixth year working with the Haisla fisheries and we’re growing every year.
Senator McInnis: How many incidents would occur on an annual basis, approximately? For how many incidents would you be called out?
Mr. Amos: Most of the incidents we ever ran into were basically breakdowns and nothing that put anybody in danger, but, like I said, we weren’t ever set up to rescue people so we would hold them in place until Coast Guard would get there. That’s all we could do. We weren’t insured to do stuff like that and my boss always stayed away from that.
We would never turn anybody away, of course. If something happened, then we would be there. But to get up and go was a matter of recouping money. Fuel is expensive. Paying our guys to get out there costs a lot of money. Sometimes, we’re barely piecemealing funds together. I think this is the first two years that we’ve actually kept all four members of our team employed year round. Funds is a big issue.
Senator McInnis: Are things getting better, apart from budget issues? Would you say that search and rescue along the coast is getting better?
Mr. Amos: I think it is.
Senator McInnis: I get a sense that there’s not a great deal of communication, not only with the Coast Guard, but with the Indigenous communities. Am I correct? Is that a challenge?
Mr. Amos: It is a challenge and it has been a challenge, but through the Coastal Nations SARs training, I think they stopped going to our band council. They said we want to train you guys and we recognize that you guys are there all the time and that you’re on the water all the time. A lot of us grew up on the water. They recognize that now and the communication isn’t going through the band council but straight to our department. That was a good thing. If they went through the council, it would take time for those decisions to be made such as who to send and stuff like that.
Communication is getting better.
Senator McInnis: Thank you for what you do.
Senator Duffy: Thank you, Mr. Amos. Back in the old days I was a boater myself, so I have some appreciation of what you talk about when you speak about having proper training for rescues. I don’t think our viewers at home would quite appreciate the fact that usually when you’re out rescuing someone it’s in bad weather, bad winds and high seas. When you mentioned that you weren’t properly trained in the old days to do that, I gather — am I correct — that one of the concerns is collision and somebody falling if you’re trying to bring a person who is injured or sick off their boat onto yours. There’s the whole business of transfers and making sure it’s safe and people don’t fall into the water and get crushed between the boats. There’s a lot of to consider, is that right?
Mr. Amos: There’s a lot; that’s right. Even the training that I took was a couple of people got in the water. I’m pretty comfortable in the water. I’ve taken a lot of swift water rescue training or jumped into rivers and went down some pretty high white waters to save people. But out in the channel it’s a different monster, too. That goes back to me saying about being on the same playing field as other people.
I enjoyed the Coastal Nations SARs training, but not some aspects of it, like the RHIOT training, when you had flipped boats running in high seas. That’s all we do here because we get nasty weather most of the time. But when I did the training in Bamfield, it was sun shining and flat calm the whole week. That was pretty disappointing, because I was looking forward to running those rigs in big weather.
Senator Duffy: A lot of people watching this would say that’s not something I want to get involved in. How much interest is there in the young men and women in your community getting involved in this kind of work?
Mr. Amos: There’s a pretty growing interest. Like I said, since I’ve been back last November 1 or 2, I started telling anybody who wanted to listen about some of the opportunities, such as the environmental response training internship through the Coast Guard, the six-month internship.
Senator Duffy: That is fantastic.
Mr. Amos: There are many opportunities out there. After all this happened, I received emails from Barry Cunningham in Prince Rupert up on our coast, and Tyler Brand and Geoff Carrow, about filling out applications to do the course because I have a lot of experience on the water. I have taken a bit of training on environmental response.
At this point in my life, I’m really enjoying the fact that I might be getting one of those positions here pretty soon.
Senator Duffy: We look forward to your continued contribution and support in this work.
One final mention. You mentioned sea cans. You have sea cans at Kitamaat which I gather contain booms and the other things related to oil spills. Do you think you can use more? Should there be such a thing in all of the fishing harbours where we have small craft coming and going and where the danger of a fuel spill is always present?
Mr. Amos: That’s a definite must, I believe.
Senator Duffy: On simple things, do you have a common frequency with the RCMP and Coast Guard now?
Mr. Amos: We’ve always had it with the Coast Guard, but we’ve never really been on a common frequency with the RCMP. Even that is changing through that rescue last year. Last year, I was in touch with a constable who was ex-military. He used to run search and rescue for land and sea. He’s going to plan something for spring or summertime.
I introduced him to Geoffrey Carrow so that now that we’re all working together to get all this training done and train as many people as we can, because we do have a lot of boaters and there’s a huge interest in taking that training.
Senator Duffy: Thank you, Mr. Amos. Your testimony has been very helpful.
Senator Poirier: Thank you, Mr. Amos, for being here. I have a couple of questions.
As a follow-up from my colleague Senator McInnis, in one of the questions I think I understood that you had four full-time employees at this point.
Mr. Amos: Yes.
Senator Poirier: I imagine you have a team of volunteer people who are with your search and rescue team, auxiliary also; am I right?
Mr. Amos: We don’t really have a search and rescue auxiliary team. All we have is the equipment, which is not very much equipment yet. But the Coast Guard has promised to outfit our vessels, the two bigger ones, with the properly lighting and proper stuff to pull people out of the water with, all sorts of equipment. It’s a pretty big list and they’re still trying to get that to us. So when something does happen, we will be prepared for call-outs.
I’m also second-in-command in our volunteer fire department, and we have a pretty big contingent there. We have about 22 people in the volunteers. They were all out scouring the beaches when that happened, when people heard the man screaming in the water. It was pitch-black out.
Senator Poirier: When you say you just have the four employees, you do have people in the community, when you get a call that there’s something out there from the Coast Guard, who accompany you or help you? It’s not just the four of you that go out, right?
Mr. Amos: It’s not just the four of us. I don’t know if you know when the Queen of the North sank over there by Hartley Bay, they had a lot of community members take their boats out by themselves. That's what happened that night, too. We had a couple of community members take open herring skiffs and start scouring the beaches and different places. People help.
Senator Poirier: These people who helped, the volunteers who come in and help, they’re not people who have had any type of training with the Coast Guard, if I understand correctly.
Mr. Amos: That’s right.
Senator Poirier: Is there training offered right now through the Coast Guard for volunteers, if they would want to take it, in your community?
Mr. Amos: They’ve promised that they want to start a Coast Guard auxiliary team right in our community, with the constable that wants to be part of that, to do some land and sea exercises and training for us. So, yes, the training is coming. It’s just a matter of time and money.
Senator Poirier: When you go out, with the four employees that you have on team right now, are you using your own private equipment and boats? Or does your organization have that and it’s supplied by either the Coast Guard or by an organization that finances it?
Mr. Amos: We’ve got most of our own equipment, survival suits and stuff like that. But we don’t have the immersion suits. That was part of the list that the Coast Guard in Bamfield said they would supply us with, along with the training.
Senator Poirier: What you do have now, was that financed and supplied by the Coast Guard, or was that something you had to purchase yourselves?
Mr. Amos: That’s what our department purchased for us.
Senator Poirier: And your finances come from where?
Mr. Amos: We have a capacity fund here when we go get training. We have money for supplies and gear, because it’s mostly cold here, so we need the proper nice Mustang gear, the floater gear. That’s bought by our department. We have another department. I’m sorry; I can’t remember what it was.
Then, through some of the programs that we do run, some of the money is supplied through that, because we never started out as a search and rescue but we’re heading that way. It’s just another jacket that we’ll be wearing, or whatever that saying is. That stuff will be provided by the Coast Guard.
Senator Poirier: Do you have to, on occasion, do your own fundraising to get equipment?
Mr. Amos: My boss, Mike Jacobs, is the one that really takes care of all that. I’m just the low guy on the totem pole out here, with a little bit of training. It comes through the department.
Senator Poirier: Thank you for all that you do. There are a lot of coastlines along the B.C. coast, as there is along the Atlantic Coast, where I’m from. We really need people like you guys out there. Sometimes when the distance is far, you’re the ones that can respond for us. Thank you for all that you do, and continue the good work.
Mr. Amos: Thank you.
Senator Coyle: It’s a pleasure to meet you electronically today. I’m also from the East Coast and have some questions to amplify a little bit on what my colleague Senator Poirier was talking about, which is the whole area of training.
I understand your main business -- as with your own colleagues, the four of you -- is to go out there and fish, get the fish in and make some money for the band, I imagine.
Mr. Amos: It’s a tough job.
Senator Coyle: Yes. That, in itself, is already a tough job.
Mr. Amos: But somebody has to do it.
Senator Coyle: It sounds like you’re born to it, which is a nice position to be in.
Adding this layer of search and rescue, you also made reference to environmental response as well, I’m curious. It’s wonderful that you’ve had some training. It sounds like you’re hungry for more. It sounds like there are others in your community and in other communities like yours who are interested. The training has been provided through the Coast Guard. You did mention the liaison from the Coast Guard. I’m trying to get the whole picture.
Is there any plan that you know of, for instance, for somebody like yourself, who has already had the basic training, to become a mentor or a master trainer, so that the training itself is then resident in the community, the expertise is resident in someone like you or someone else, and then you are then equipped to train your other colleagues?
I have experience not in search and rescue but, when the Marshall decision came down in the First Nations fisheries in Nova Scotia, I was running an organization at the time that got very involved in training First Nations fisheries mentors. They then went on and trained their colleagues, and at that point it was to get into the fishery, as new fishers.
In this case we’re not talking about fishing; we’re talking about search and rescue. But I’m curious whether there’s a model that could be used where someone like you, who has a keen interest, has had the basic first-level training and is involved in some other things, would be taken on as master trainers and equipped to train others, so that you’re not always relying on somebody else coming in. I’m just curious.
Mr. Amos: I’ve done a lot of things. First aid has been my biggest thing. I’ve held a ticket for 15 years-plus now. Our community is small and in the wintertime, that’s when it’s the worst. We answer 911 calls until the ambulance gets here. I’ve been presented with opportunities to take a train-the-trainer course so I could do first aid training.
Also, the other one that’s just shown up, like I said before, is the environmental response internship. I’ve been recommended. This is also such a good feeling for somebody like me. I grew up on a small reservation. We have a huge family, but I never went out of my community. Then, to have taken the training, the Coastal Nations SARs training, and then to have helped out with the sinking of the ship, everything is just working out. Then, three recommendations to sign up and then join the Coast Guard has been huge.
That’s all just happened in the past few weeks. It’s hard for me to believe that it’s happening and to be able to bring that back to the community and then maybe possibly getting more people involved? I’m all for it.
Senator Coyle: Congratulations to you. I don’t think that your community is dissimilar from other communities along the coastline. Of course, every community has its own unique nature.
Probably many people in your sort of position as an experienced fisherman, very experienced on the water, haven’t left their communities either. There would be others like you whom we need to find ways to support, equip, so that you can use what you have to really spread that knowledge and expertise among others in your community. I think you’re a wonderful, shining example of what can be done in other places, so congratulations to you.
Mr. Amos: Thank you.
The Chair: Just to echo Senator Coyle’s words, I think you’ve become the ambassador for search and rescue in the North. You may be called upon in many ways.
Senator Nancy Greene Raine has joined us and she has a question for our witness.
Senator Raine: Thank you for being here. I’m sorry I was late to the meeting, but I do appreciate what you’re doing, Mr. Amos, and how important it is in your neck of the woods. You live there. When you live in a place and you understand the weather, the water and the hazards, it’s all part of what you know and what you bring to that job, so I’m very pleased that you’re going to get an opportunity to train with the Canadian Coast Guard. As I understand it, you’ll be going away for some training?
Mr. Amos: Yes.
Senator Raine: My question was along that line, because right now the major college for the Canadian Coast Guard is in Atlantic Canada. I think there’s a realization among many people that we really should be having a place where you can at least get your preliminary training up to a certain level where you can be accepted into the Coast Guard on the West Coast. Would you be in support of that?
Mr. Amos: For sure.
Senator Raine: Or would you rather go to — no, no, but honestly, maybe you would rather go to Atlantic Canada, because it is a wonderful part of Canada.
Mr. Amos: I’ve never been that far. I’ve been as far as Saskatoon when I was 17, but that’s it. I’d actually take a trip that way to do some training. It’s hard, though. We have two kids. I have a 16-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl on our local swim team. We’re busy, busy, busy.
Senator Raine: I can see that the logical thing to do in terms of arranging advanced education toward the Coast Guard would be to break it into sections so that you don’t have to miss the fishing season.
Mr. Amos: Yes, that sounds right. When I was sent the link to fill out the application for the environmental response internship, one of the first things it says in there — and that’s one of the things that kind of scares somebody like me or people in our community when a lot of us have been boaters ever since we were kids -- is to describe your university degree.
Senator Raine: So your university was the ocean?
Mr. Amos: The university was the ocean, yes. But I was reassured by the gentleman that I’ve been talking to that that has nothing to do with it. Experience is everything and I understand that and I’m very happy about that, because it’s a huge opportunity.
Senator Raine: I think what’s happening in this whole program is very, very positive, so thank you very much for being part of it. You’ll have a responsibility as you go forward to pass it on; you know that.
Mr. Amos: Yes.
Senator Raine: Thanks again and good luck. I wish you well and I hope you never have to use your training.
Mr. Amos: Me, too. It’s been my worst fear to find somebody out in the ocean in that situation, but the training does help.
Senator Raine: I know from talking to a lot of first responders that they all have the same fear of the actual incident, but when it happens and your training kicks in and you’re able to help somebody, it’s a feeling like nothing else. So you are, in a way, in a privileged situation because you would get that training.
Mr. Amos: Yes. That happens all the time with level 3 first aid. I’ve done and seen quite a few bad accidents and heart attacks and I’ve done CPR on many people. It’s the training that really — the average person wouldn’t be able to get through that, I believe. It’s a tough thing.
Senator Raine: But it’s nice to know that you can save a life.
Mr. Amos: It is.
The Chair: Thank you, Mr. Amos, for your testimony and certainly some enlightening commentary in terms of what’s happening up North. I certainty congratulate you and echo the comments of the senators here for the role you have taken on in your community, certainly as the first person there and the only person there at the present time to have the training that you have. I congratulate you on a degree in common sense. It goes a long way. It will take you a long way. Your community is definitely in a much better state that you’re there now with that training.
We ask you, as a committee that has been studying search and rescue in Canada now for quite some time, that you certainly encourage others in your community to get involved and to participate in that training, to share the load — not necessarily to share the load for you, as much as just creating more opportunity for people to be involved.
On behalf of our committee, I want to thank you again for taking the time to join us this evening and congratulate you on your efforts in your community on behalf of the people that you represent.
Mr. Amos: Thank you.
The Chair: All the best.
(The committee adjourned.)