Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members, for inviting us here today.
CIELAP, for those who don't know, is an independent think tank that has been providing advice to the federal government for over 30 years. You have copies of our submission. We have a long history of being involved with the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.
We're going to look at two topics today related to vulnerable populations and ecosystems. They're on the impacts of pharmaceuticals in water and innovative technologies such as biotechnologies and nanotechnology. These happen to be two of the research areas of CIELAP's work right now.
We're going to split this in two, so there's going to be a coming up and down. My colleague, Maureen Carter-Whitney, who is research director at CIELAP, is going to talk about the pharmaceutical issue, and if there's time, I'm going to say a couple of words about biotechnology.
Thank you.