Welcome, everyone, from across the country. Some of us are bathing in the sun on the beach, and some of us are scraping the snow away. That is Canada.
I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number eight of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food. Pursuant to the orders of reference of April 11 and April 29, 2020, the committee is meeting for the sole purpose of receiving evidence concerning matters related to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The order of reference of April 11 also stipulates that only motions requesting or scheduling specific witnesses can be considered by the committee and that such motions shall be decided by way of recorded vote. As you know, today's meeting is taking place by video conference, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
For your information, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entire committee. In order to facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules for you to follow.
Interpretation in this video conference will work very much like 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 your language channel is set to the language you intend to speak, not to floor. This ensures the best sound quality possible for our interpreters, and this is very important.
Also, before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can click the microphone icon to activate your mike.
I also want to remind you that all members and witnesses should address their comments through the chair. Members who need to seek the floor when it's not their turn to ask questions must activate their microphones and raise a point of order. If a member wishes to respond to a point of order raised by another member, the member should use the “Raise Hand” feature. By doing so, the member will let the chair know that they wish to speak. To do so, click on “Participant” at the bottom of the screen. When the list appears, you'll see, next to your name, that you can click on the “Raise Hand” icon. Speak slowly and clearly, and make sure that your microphone is off when you aren't speaking. As you know, we strongly encourage you to use a headset. If your headset is equipped with a hanging microphone, make sure that the microphone doesn't rub against your shirt while you're speaking.
If you have any technical difficulties, such as problems hearing the interpretation, or if you're accidentally disconnected, for example, please inform the chair or the clerk immediately. The technical team will try to solve the problem. Please note that we may need to suspend the meeting at that point to ensure that all members can fully participate. Could all participants click on the top right-hand side of their screen to ensure that they can see everything? That way, you should be able to see all the participants in a grid. This will enable all participants in the video conference to see each other.
Finally, just as we usually do in a regular committee meeting, we will suspend in between panels or sections of the agenda.
With that, we are ready to begin. I would like to welcome our witnesses.
For the first panel, from the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, we have Madame Claire Citeau, executive director.
Madame Citeau, please say hello to ensure that we can hear you.