Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for the invitation to appear here today.
My name is Jason Wood. I'm the executive director of space exploration policy at the Canadian Space Agency. I'm joined today by colleagues from the labour program at Employment and Social Development Canada.
In 2020 Canada signed a treaty with the United States to enable Canada's participation in the lunar gateway, a small space station that will orbit the moon. Canada's contribution to this partnership includes Canadarm3, which is a cutting-edge, smart robotic system that will contribute an estimated $71 million annually to Canada's GDP and will create and maintain 630 high-quality jobs for Canadians over a 12-year period.
Implementing legislation is required for Canada to fulfill its obligations under the treaty. The majority of the required legislation was enacted through Budget Implementation Act, 2022, number 1, under division 18, part 5.
One item remains to be implemented, and that is division 4 of part 4 of this bill, which amends the Government Employee Compensation Act to implement the cross-waiver of liability contained within the treaty.
Thank you, Chair.