Good afternoon, everyone. This is the 47th meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance. Our orders today are pursuant to the order of reference of Thursday, November 4, 2010. We are studying Bill C-47, A second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 4, 2010 and other measures.
We are very pleased to have officials from the Department of Finance, and the Minister of Finance, the Honourable Jim Flaherty. We have Minister Flaherty for the first hour.
Minister, as you saw when you came in, you were very warmly welcomed by all members of this committee; we appreciate having you here. We look forward to your opening statement, and then we'll have questions from members. Welcome to the committee.