Good afternoon. I call this meeting to order. This is the 23rd meeting of the Standing Committee on Finance. Our orders of the day are pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted on October 29 for a study of youth unemployment. This meeting begins a series of meetings on this topic.
I'd like to welcome all of our guests this afternoon. We thank you for joining us here and for your testimony this afternoon.
We're going to first hear from the Department of Employment and Social Development, and then from Statistics Canada. Each department will have between 10 and 15 minutes in total for presentations. I'd encourage you to stay within that timeframe.
Then we'll hear from the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. You will each have five minutes to make your presentation.
As usual, there then will be a question and answer session with members.
David McGovern, from the Department of Employment and Social Development, I invite you to begin, please.