Dr. Rick Officer:

It remains an issue. Part of the issue is that the Marine Institute and its mandate under the Act are quite broad. We are under the aegis of a parent Department, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It provides approximately 70% of the resources we extend. The remainder come from European grants and service level arrangements with other Government Departments and agencies. It remains a big issue that those services and some of the services we provide for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are treated as ephemeral contracts because the money is ephemeral. In areas where we have enduring work and in some areas emerging as particular priorities for the institute, particularly around spatial planning, where we try to balance the interests of the existing sectors, fisheries and aquaculture with the emerging sectors in renewable energy and tourism, that work is not ephemeral; it will be enduring. I am determined to work in concert with the Departments and agencies currently supporting that work through ephemeral arrangements to transition them to longer-term performance and delivery arrangements agreeable to our parent Department.