I call the meeting to order.
I'd like to welcome everybody here. Good afternoon, members of the committee, ladies and gentlemen.
Today, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), and as agreed at our first meeting last week, the committee is recommencing its study on the operation and maintenance of small craft harbours, as begun last session. We'll discuss the details of how the study will proceed during the second part of today's meeting.
I want to welcome our witnesses: Mr. Hegge, Mr. Bergeron, and Ms. Leduc. I will call on Mr. Hegge to make some opening comments in a moment.
Just to advise the committee, we requested the presence of the deputy minister, as suggested at last week's meeting, but she is not available until December 5. So instead of one witness, we ended up with these three fine people at the end of the table. I'm sure they'll enlighten us on any discussions that we may have. We reserve the option to call the deputy minister, if need be, at a later date, but she wasn't available now.
Mr. Hegge, I'm going to ask you to make your opening comments and maybe to introduce the people with you and their roles. And we'll go from there.
You have ten minutes, sir.