I call this meeting to order. This is the 34th meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance. We are continuing our pre-budget consultations 2010.
I want to welcome all of our witnesses this afternoon. Thank you all for coming in.
We have seven organizations in this session. We have, first of all, Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies, the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission, and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. We have the Canadian Festivals Coalition, the Canadian Caregiver Coalition, Fédération des communautés francophones et acadienne du Canada, and BIOTECanada.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a lot of witnesses here today and a lot of members with questions, so we are going to ask you to stick very firmly to the five-minute opening statement round. I will indicate when you have one minute left.
We will start with Rx&D, Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies.