Thank you, Chair.
First of all, I want to welcome everybody back here this fall. It's great to see you all.
Of course, the weather out in Saskatchewan is a little wet, just like it is here this morning; there definitely are some challenges out in my part of the province.
I just want to make the committee aware that there will be a notice of motion coming forward. It's a joint motion from Mr. Valeriote and me. If we have unanimous consent, we'd like to bring it forward. I understand we need unanimous consent to even do that.
What we'd like to do is have the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food conduct a study on the status of the Canadian biotechnology sector: that we travel to universities across Canada where this technology is primarily being undertaken; that we recommend, where necessary, legislative, policy, and regulatory changes in order to foster an innovative and fertile biotechnology industry in Canada; and that we report our findings as a committee to the House of Commons.
Mr. Valeriote, I'll turn it over to you, if you want to talk about that a bit.