I call the meeting to order.
Welcome to the sixth meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), and the motion adopted by the committee on October 24, the committee is commencing its study on processing capacity.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the order of the House adopted on September 23, 2020. Proceedings will be published on the House of Commons website.
For information purposes, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow. Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name.
I remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.
Please ensure that your mike is on mute when you are not speaking.
With that, we are ready to begin.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses.
For the first hour, from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, we have Theresa Iuliano and Tammy Switucha; from the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food, we have Warren Goodlet, director general, research analysis directorate; Frédéric Seppey, assistant deputy minister, market and industry service branch and Marco Valicenti, director general, sector development and analysis directorate, market and industry services branch; and from the Department of Industry, Sheryl Groeneweg, director general, manufacturing and life sciences branch.
We'll start with Ms. Iuliano, for seven and a half minutes.