I would like to start by welcoming Pierre Marc Johnson.
We have Mr. Morton on the telephone, so he will be hearing us as we begin.
I want to remind members that we did send to each of these gentlemen a list of the kinds of things we wanted to find out. I'll review that very quickly.
We asked them to talk about the roles and responsibilities of the advisers and the nature of the advice they gave to the minister. Were written, formal documents provided to the minister in preparation for the conference? If so, the committee would like to see copies. As intelligent lay people, what did you learn from the process? What surprised you? What impressions did you have of where you thought the whole process was going? Where do you think the process is going? Are you optimistic?
Of course we offer each of our guests a ten-minute presentation and then we'll go to our usual procedure for questions.
I believe everybody received a copy of the expenses, the costs incurred, as requested. I trust everyone received that at their office today. I would ask Pierre Marc to begin with a presentation of up to ten minutes, please.