Okay. Let's move on.
We are going to sit here until 6:30. When the bells ring, we'll adjourn for the vote. We'll reconvene after the bells to carry on with either testimony or questions, depending on how far we get. We are going to have some supper. It will be brought in, and it will be here after we come back from the vote. Then we'll proceed with a sort of working supper from that point on until we're done. I hope that works for everyone.
I'll just run through, as a reminder, the rules of engagement for speaking times and witnesses and so on. These come from our routine motions.
First, witnesses will be given ten minutes to make their opening statement. Today I would suggest that's probably ten minutes per department; I'll let you figure that out.
As well, at the discretion of the chair, during the questioning of the witnesses, seven minutes will be allocated to the first questioner of each party, starting with the opposition parties. Thereafter five minutes will be allocated to each subsequent questioner, alternating between parties until each member has had an opportunity to question the witnesses.
So that's the procedure we will be following. Everybody is going to have, I think, lots of questions and lots to say. I would just ask that people try to keep the questions as concise as possible so that we can get as many answers as possible, because we're going to stick pretty tightly to the seven minutes or five minutes per person.
I'd like to welcome the witnesses from the various departments. This is going to be a very information-packed and question-packed session. I think we're all going to get a lot out of it. It's going to set the basis for a lot of the things we're going to do moving forward in this important consideration that's before us.
I'll start with the list as it's laid out and begin with Mr. John Moffet, acting director general, systems and priorities, with the Department of the Environment.
We'll proceed through all four departments, if we can, and get those statements out of the way. Folks can jot down questions, and then we'll come back to the questions for each individual department afterwards as a group.
Mr. Moffet, the floor is yours for ten minutes.