I call to order the 42nd meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance. Continuing our pre-budget consultations, we have two meetings this morning and six groups for each meeting.
In the first session, we have the building and construction trades department, AFL-CIO, Canadian office; the Canadian Federation of Agriculture; Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow; Citizens for Public Justice; the Vanier Institute of the Family; and Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited. Welcome to all of you.
You will have up to a maximum of five minutes for an opening statement, in the order in which I introduced you, and then we will go to questions from members from all sides.
We'll start with the building and construction trades department.