Welcome, everyone. Thank you so much for coming in. We had an unexpected vote this morning, so we apologize for beginning late.
This is the tenth meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance of this session.
According to our orders today, pursuant to Standing Order 83.1, this is the start of pre-budget consultations 2011 for next year's budget.
We want to thank all of you for coming in this morning.
We have with us Monsieur Marc Lavoie, professeur titulaire, Département de science économique, Université d'Ottawa; from BMO Capital Markets, Mr. Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist; from the Canadian Labour Congress, Monsieur Sylvain Schetagne, économiste principal; from the Conference Board of Canada, Mr. Glen Hodgson, senior vice-president and chief economist; and from Laurentian Bank Securities, Monsieur Carlos Leitao, économiste en chef.
Bienvenue. Thank you all for coming in.
We will have about five minutes from each of you for an opening statement, and then we'll have questions from members.
We'll begin with Mr. Lavoie.