I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 10 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
I'd like to outline a few rules to follow. Most of our MPs are now familiar with them, but I will go through some of them for our witnesses.
Interpretation in this video conference will work very much like it does in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of floor, English or French. When you intervene, please make sure that the language channel is set to the language you intend to speak, not the floor channel. This is very important. It will reduce the number of times we need to stop because the interpretation is inaudible for our participants. It will maximize the time we spend exchanging with each other.
Witnesses, could I get a nod from you that you understand how to change the channel if you want to change your language. Mr. VanderHout, Mr. Keenan, Mr. Lemaire and Mr. Gilroy, are you good with that? Okay.
Also, before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can click on the microphone icon to activate your mike.
Make sure your microphone is off when you are not speaking.
We're ready to begin now.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses to today's hearing.
Today, for our first hour, we have, from the Canadian Horticultural Council, Mr. Brian Gilroy, president, and Mr. Jan VanderHout, vice-president. Welcome to both of you. From the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, we have Mr. Ron Lemaire, president. Welcome, Ron. From the United Potato Growers of Canada, we have Mr. Ray Keenan, chairman, and Mr. Kevin MacIsaac, general manager.
I know we're working to reduce statements from 10 minutes to seven minutes, but because we did not have time to do that before the meeting, we will have a 10-minute opening statement from each organization.
Let's start with the Canadian Horticultural Council, with up to 10 minutes between Brian Gilroy and Jan VanderHout. Go ahead.