Let us come to order. As witnesses know, this meeting is, pursuant to Standing Order 83.1, on the pre-budget consultations for the 2017 budget.
I offer my apologies to the witnesses before we even start. We found out yesterday that we have votes tonight at six o'clock. I think the clerk has informed people that we're under a really tight time frame for both presentations and questions. We felt it was probably wiser to tighten up a little bit rather than have witnesses on the next panel sit around waiting for however long it might take us to do the votes. That's why we tightened it up.
We will hold presenters to five minutes with their presentations so that we can get through and then have at least two questioners from the government, two from the official opposition, and one from the third party.
We'll start with the Canadian Convenience Stores Association, Mr. Chera, president, and Mr. Scholten, past-president.