I will call the meeting to order. I thank everyone for coming on this new system we're working on for the House of Commons at the moment.
Welcome to meeting number 20 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance. Pursuant to the order of reference of Tuesday, March 24, the committee is meeting to examine the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today's meeting, as you're well aware, is taking place by video conference, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Common's website. The website will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
In order to facilitate the work of our interpreters, I'd like to outline a few rules for us to follow. Interpretation in this video conference will work very much as it does in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of either “Floor”, “English” or “French”.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you're ready to speak, you can either click on the microphone icon to activate your mike or you can hold down the space bar while you're speaking. When you release the space bar, the mike will shut off, something like a walkie-talkie.
Should members need to request the floor outside of their designated time for questions, they should activate their mike and state they have a point of order and I will pick up on that.
If members wish to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, they should use the “raise hand” function. This will signal your interest to speak. In order to do so, you can click on “participants” at the bottom of the screen. When the list pops up, you'll see, next to your name, that you've clicked on “raise hand”.
Beyond that, speak slowly and clearly. It's a lot better for interpretation. Your mike should be on mute when you're not speaking.
With that, I will welcome all the witnesses. Thank you for coming to this panel. Your input is very important to us.
We'll start with Cécile Arbaud from Dans la rue.