Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Let me congratulate you on being the chair again, and of course Mr. Wilfert and Madame Barbot on being vice-chairs of the new committee—I'm sure we'll all be working very well together—and of course the new members who have come, Raymond Chan and Paul and everybody else. We're looking forward to the session.
And of course, Gerry, it's very nice to see you, and Angela, it's nice to see you again.
Having done the nice things, let's get to business.
Concerning Bill C-9 and inviting the Minister of Foreign Affairs on Thursday, November 22, the minister is not in the country, so that's not possible. I say we just leave it as “senior departmental officials” who are available and continue with that.
As well, I think we would like to propose a list of a few witnesses for this, so that we can listen to the so-called expert witnesses. We have a list of these, which basically just means the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and others who are out there.