I call this meeting to order.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to welcome our guest today, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans. I thank him for taking the time out of his busy schedule to meet with our committee. I'm sure the minister and the officials accompanying him--whom I'm sure he'll introduce as we go through--are all quite familiar with how the committee operates. We have certain time constraints that we operate within. The minister has some opening comments and then we'll move into questioning.
You'll probably hear a little alarm up here, Minister. Don't be alarmed when it goes off. It's a reminder to the members more than anything else to try to stay within those time constraints. If members or the minister are in the middle of comments, I'd ask that you bring them to a conclusion shortly after that so we can get in all the questions that members might have here today.
Once again, welcome, Minister. In your comments, hopefully, you'll introduce the officials who are joining you today. We understand that you have to attend another meeting and that the officials will remain with us for the entire meeting, and will be more than happy to answer members' questions as well. Thank you very much for coming.
Minister, I'm going to turn it over to you. Please proceed.