I call the meeting to order.
I want to welcome everyone here.Bienvenue à tous. This meeting is called in continuation of the committee's ongoing study into open government and open data.
We have a very interesting meeting this afternoon. We've had about at least six meetings on this study, but this is the first occasion on which we're actually going to hear from Government of Canada witnesses as to what is being done, what is proposed to be done, and what plans are being worked upon.
The committee is very pleased to have with us Madame Corinne Charette, the chief information officer of the Treasury Board Secretariat. She is accompanied by Stephen Walker, senior director of information management strategies in the chief information officer branch.
We have two departments represented. The first department is the Department of Natural Resources. As you will recall, colleagues, back in an earlier testimony from the Information Commissioner, the Department of Natural Resources was out there as probably one of the better examples within the Government of Canada. We have with us Mr. Brian Gray, assistant deputy minister, earth sciences sector; Mr. Bill Merklinger, assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer, corporate management and services sector; and Mr. Prashant Shukle, director general, mapping information branch.
Finally, from the Department of the Environment, we have Mr. Chuck Shawcross, assistant deputy minister and chief information officer, chief information officer branch.
On behalf of every member of the committee, I want to thank you for your appearances here this afternoon. I want to thank you for your efforts in this regard. We're going to have opening comments from each of the departments and then we will go to questions from members.
I'm going to start with you, Madame Charette. Proceed with your opening comments, please.