Welcome to this meeting of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
With that, I will call the meeting to order.
I'll go through some of the usual stuff. I know that most of you know it, but I think it's still important to go through it.
Welcome to meeting number 16 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. We are meeting today to discuss the subject matter of the supplementary estimates (A). Note that we will not vote on the estimates at the end of the meeting, as they will be considered by the committee of the whole on June 17.
I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
Interpretation in this video conference will work very much like in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either floor, English or French.
When you intervene, please make sure that your language channel is set to the language that you intend to speak, not the floor. 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, I think we've all gone through the checks to make sure you understand this important information. If not, wave your hand, but I believe we're all good on that.
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.
Please make sure that your microphone is on mute when you aren't speaking.
We are now ready to get going. I'd like to welcome our witnesses today, especially the minister, Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Appearing before the committee today is the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, who is the minister responsible for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
You have seven minutes for your opening statement. The floor is yours.