I call this meeting to order. This is the 43rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance.
Welcome to all of our guests here this morning. We have two panels of seven organizations each this morning. We are continuing our pre-budget consultations for 2010-11. I want to welcome you all here.
We have with us here in the first panel the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, the Canadian Home Builders' Association, Cardus, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Alberta Chambers of Commerce, the Canadian Association for Community Living, and the Canadian Diabetes Association. You will each have five minutes for an opening statement, and we'll proceed in that order.
I just want to point out that the austerity measures have begun early, because we don't have that many lights in the room. That is on orders from Minister Flaherty to start saving some money. We're trying to rectify that matter as quickly as possible.