I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting no. 23 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food.
I will start with a few reminders.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House Order of November 25, 2021. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. So you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.
Of course, screenshots or taking photos of your screen is not permitted.
Colleagues, we'll just be mindful of the health protocols in the room.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Monday, May 30, 2022, the committee is continuing its study of global food insecurity.
Colleagues, I would remark that we had a very good first meeting on this topic. The information was helpful. I appreciated your questions. I think the information we got back was very credible. We had great witnesses.
Today will be no different. For the first hour, I'm very pleased to say, we have Mykola Solskyi, the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine.
Minister, I know that right now, as I check my watch, it might be 11:30 p.m. in Ukraine, so thank you for making this appearance. Thank you for being here today. Your testimony is important. We stand with you. We heard from one of your parliamentary colleagues, Yulia Klymenko, one of the members of parliament of Ukraine, and we look forward to hearing from you. We know that this is a challenging time.
You will have up to five minutes. I'll allow a little bit more, if you'd like. We want to hear some opening remarks from you. Then we will turn it over to our members of Parliament, who are excited to be able to engage and ask you questions accordingly.
Thank you again, and welcome.
The final thing I'll say is that we've been very blessed, as I've mentioned a number of times, to have 41 Ukrainian interns on the Hill as part of the Canada-Ukraine parliamentary program. A number of them are in the room. They've been invaluable in connecting us to you and your government.
Thank you so much.
Over to you, Minister.