I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 33 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), and the motion adopted on April 21, 2021, the committee is meeting on its study of corporate offshore licences.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021. Therefore, members can attend in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.
The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. The webcast will show only the person speaking, rather than the entirety of the committee.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. You will also notice the platform's “raise hand” feature on the main toolbar should you wish to speak or alert the chair.
Before speaking, please click on the microphone icon to unmute your mike. When you are not speaking, please put your mike on mute.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses for the first part of our meeting today.
For the first panel, from the Canadian Independent Fish Harvesters Federation, we have Melanie Sonnenberg, president. From Unifor, we have Keith Sullivan, president of the Fish Food and Allied Workers Union. From the Maritime Fishermen's Union, we have Martin Mallet, executive director. From the Prince Edward Island Fishermen's Association, we have Ian MacPherson, executive director.
I would like to welcome Madam Desbiens in place of Madam Gill. As well, I want to thank Mr. Bradgon for filling in as chair of the meeting last week, as I wasn't available.
We will now proceed with opening remarks from Ms. Sonnenberg for five minutes or less.
Ms. Sonnenberg, when you're ready, the floor is yours for five minutes or less, please.