Welcome & Opening of the 2020 CUSLI Symposium.

• Position: Canada-U.S. Law Institute - A State-Provincial Approach to Harmful Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes Basin: Possibilities and Pitfalls

Speakers: Stephen J. Petras, Jr., The Honorable James J. Blanchard & Chios Carmody

MR. STEPHEN J. PETRAS: Well, good morning everyone. Welcome to a symposium put on by the Canada-U.S. Law Institute on "Harmful Algal Blooms in the Great Lakes Basin: A Binational Sub-federal Approach?" So, this is going to be an interesting symposium, where we will have two professors give us a proposal on how to solve harmful algal blooms. That will be followed by a panel of government regulators, who will comment on the proposal and give their insights and thoughts. Then we will have an academic/NGO panel that will do the same. And then our two presenters, Kathryn Friedman and Irena Creed, will give us their conclusion.

I'm Steve Petras. I'm the U.S. national director of the Canada-U.S. Law Institute, and it's our honor and privilege to put on this program.

A couple of words at the start. This is a symposium, and the point of this symposium is to share ideas and to enter into an open and honest dialogue, with people being allowed to present their ideas and thoughts freely and openly. This is not a symposium where we're here to pin anybody down, or to try to get the official position of any state or regulatory body. Rather, we're here for a dialogue and exchange. And the opinions, and thoughts, and ideas of the presenters--although they may be part of states, governments, institutions--will be their own. And we're looking forward to your participation and an open dialogue.

There's also CLE credits for this program and, at the end of the program, we will give the activity number for those CLE credits.

So, we do have a very tight schedule, because we have an outstanding presentation, followed by seven members of the regulator panel, and three members of the academic/NGO panel. I'm going to moderate the questions for all the panels.

But before we start, it's our honor and privilege to have with us the former governor of the State of Michigan, and also former U.S. ambassador to Canada, as well as a member of the Executive Committee--actually, the co-chair of the Canada-U.S. Law Institute. So, Governor Blanchard, we look forward to you now introducing our topic.

Okay. Can we go to Governor Blanchard please, Martin and Eric? I just spoke with Jim [Gov. James Blanchard], so I know he's on as a participant. So, let's see if we can get him here. Eric?

MR. MARTIN RASKA: We're looking, Steve.

MR. PETRAS: Okay. I hope he's got his video on.

MR. RASKA: Okay, he's been...