Good afternoon to everybody.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for inviting us to appear today to discuss the DFO's supplementary estimates.
Almost everyone is pretty well known to the committee here, but I'll make introductions for the benefit of the few new members we have.
We have the Commissioner of the Canadian Coast Guard, Marc Grégoire—Marc will be taking questions on all coast guard issues this afternoon; associate deputy minister at fisheries and oceans, David Bevan; newly minted senior assistant deputy minister, ecosystems and fisheries management, Kevin Stringer; assistant deputy minister, ecosystems and fisheries management operations, Trevor Swerdfager; our acting chief financial officer, Denis Bombardier; and our acting assistant deputy minister, science, Dave Gillis.
Mr. Chair, before I begin, allow me to mention that our department is still in mourning after the tragic crash of helicopter 364, assigned to CCGS Amundsen in the Arctic in September. This accident caused the loss of Captain Marc Thibault, the helicopter pilot, Mr. Daniel Dubé, and Mr. Klaus Hochheim, a University of Manitoba scientist working on the ArcticNet project. I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to offer our condolences to the families.
Mr. Chair, the department's supplementary estimates are before the committee. Our department received almost $1.669 billion in main estimates for 2013-14. Our supplementary estimates total almost $118.8 million. If approved by the committee and then by Parliament, this would bring our total 2013-14 appropriation to approximately $1.788 billion.
As you mentioned, and as was agreed with the committee clerk, l'm just going to ask our chief financial officer, Denis Bombardier, to present only the highlights of our supplementary estimates. Then we'll look forward to answering questions on supplementary estimates or any other questions of interest to the committee.
Denis, you have the floor.