Good afternoon, everyone.
Pursuant to Standing Order 81(4), we're here to talk about the main estimates for 2015-16. Welcome to our witnesses.
Before we have our opening statements, I want to recognize our colleagues from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. We have Daniel Jean, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Welcome, sir. We're glad to have you here for the first time before a committee.
We have Malcolm Brown, Deputy Minister of International Development. Welcome, sir. We're glad to have you.
We also have Arun Thangaraj, acting assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer. I know you've been with us before. Thank you very much for being here.
We'll start our opening statements with Minister Nicholson. Then we'll go to Minister Paradis and Minister Yelich.
After your opening statements, we will go around the room for questions back and forth. We're scheduled to meet until 1:30. At about 1:25 I will cut it off, because we have just a tiny bit of committee business that we need to deal with. It's not a lot, but it's still something that we need to deal with to give direction before the break.
Minister Nicholson, Minister of Foreign Affairs, welcome. We'll start with your opening statement, sir. Then we'll go through the other opening statements and get right to questions.