I would ask colleagues to resume their seats as quickly as possible, please.
First of all, I want to welcome our guests to our second panel as we continue our pre-budget consultations for 2014. I do want to apologize in advance. We will have bells, I understand, at about 5:30 and a vote at about 6:00. I will seek unanimous consent of the committee to keep studying while the bells are going on, perhaps to about 5:50. We will hopefully go as long as we can here.
We have another five individuals or organizations before us. In this panel we have first of all from the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada, the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Manitoba, Mr. David Barnard. Welcome.
We have, from the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, Mr. Travis Gordon, who is the chair. From the Canadian Medical Association, we have the president, Chris Simpson. We have, from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Ms. Victoria Nolan.
Welcome to the committee.
From the Childcare Resource and Research Unit, we have Ms. Martha Friendly, the executive director.
Thank you, all, for being here.
You each have five minutes maximum for your opening statement. We will begin with Mr. Barnard.