Thank you very much, and good afternoon.
My comments will be brief, and I will defer to my other colleague for more detailed information.
My name is Robert Kirkpatrick, and I've been a captain with the Mississauga Fire Services for 27 years. I'm the current president of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
The foundation operates the national memorial service for firefighters here in Ottawa. We also give out scholarships for the children of firefighters killed in the line of duty. The new Canadian firefighters' memorial is currently under construction on Lebreton Flats, made possible by a generous grant from the ministry of heritage.
The ceremony is run for the families. They are the VIPs at our ceremony, and we do everything for them. We pay their way to come, we look after them, and we operate the ceremony. As Doug has pointed out, the foundation is not involved in funerals. We leave the funerals to the local municipality or service where the death occurred. Our next contact with the family is when they're brought to Ottawa in September for the ceremony.
I'll now pass to John for more details on what we do at the ceremony.