Good afternoon, everyone.
I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number nine 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 scheduling specific witnesses can be considered by the committee and that such motions shall be decided by 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. The webcast will always show the person speaking rather than all the committee. To facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules 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 the language channel is set to the language that you intend to speak, not the floor. This ensures the best sound quality possible for our interpreters. This is very important. Also, before speaking ,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 want to seek the floor when it's not their turn to ask questions should turn on their microphones and raise a point of order. If a member wishes to respond to a point of order raised by another member, they must use the “Raise Hand” feature. By doing so, they'll let the chair know that they wish to speak.
To do so, please click on “Participant” at the bottom of your screen. When the list appears, you'll see, next to your name, that you can click on “Raise Hand.”
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 has a hanging microphone, make sure that the microphone doesn't rub against your shirt when you're speaking.
If you encounter technical difficulties, such as problems with hearing the interpretation, or if you're accidentally disconnected, please inform the chair or the clerk immediately and the technical team will try to resolve the issue. Please note that we may need to suspend the meeting at that time to ensure that all members can fully participate.
I want to ask all participants to click on the top right-hand side of their screen to make sure that they can see everything. That way, you should be able to see all the participants in the 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 between panels or sections of the agenda.
With that, I will introduce the guest for the first hour, the Minister of Agriculture, Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Welcome, Minister Bibeau.
We're proud to have you here. Your schedule is certainly full at this seeding time and given everything else. Thank you for being here today.
You have 10 to 12 minutes to give your presentation. The floor is yours.