Thank you for joining us. We still have a few members missing, but there is a reason for that.
I just want to say welcome to our guests. We are now officially into the study of Bill C-10.
Let me just start by saying that we are expecting—and you may have been alerted already—a vote to commence in the House. Albeit it's only one vote, it takes a long time.
If the bells go, that gives us 30 minutes of bells and then later on the voting. As you know, we still vote virtually. We don't have the app up and running, so we have to do a voice count virtually. That takes in excess of 45 minutes.
What I'm going to do is this. We're going to proceed. When the bells happen, it's pretty much going to—if I may be so bold to say—wipe out a substantial amount of your testimony. Therefore, what I'm going to say to you is that if the bells go as we expect and the meeting is called to a halt, I'm going to tentatively reschedule the entire meeting for March 12, rather than proceed and give you only a few minutes. Actually, you wouldn't have any minutes.
I want to hear from you, though. You are valued witnesses, suggested by our members, and I would be deeply regretful if we didn't hear from you before we launched into clause-by-clause for Bill C-10. I apologize for this. It is a part of democracy that is very necessary, but sometimes when a vote happens in the House, it conflicts with what we want to do here at the committee.
That being said, I also want to say to my colleagues that, if that happens, I would like to reconvene this meeting for just committee business immediately following the vote. As soon as we get online and as soon as you get into our virtual room, we can have a committee business meeting for just members and designated staff.
Again, I apologize to our witnesses. It's more than likely to happen.
In the meantime, we still have work to do. We haven't been sidelined officially as of yet.
I want to thank our guests for being here. From the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada, we have Carol Ann Pilon, executive director. From the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, we have Kevin Desjardins, president. As well, from the Independent Broadcast Group, we have Joel Fortune, legal counsel; and Luc Perreault, strategic adviser.
That being said, we're going to start with Madam Pilon.
The way we normally start this is that you have five minutes to do your opening remarks. I am a little bit flexible on your five minutes, but I don't mean to be rude if I cut you off towards the end.
Nevertheless, Madam Pilon, you have five minutes, please.