Colleagues, welcome to meeting 5 of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development.
Pursuant to the orders of reference from the House of Commons of April 20 and September 30, and the order of reference of the committee on October 13, the committee is meeting to commence consideration of votes 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, L25 and L30 under the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development; Vote 1 under International Development Research Centre; and Vote 1 under International Joint Commission (Canadian Section).
The committee will also review the Minister of International Development's mandate letter.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, and it is also the first meeting as part of the House of Commons pilot project for webinar formats. The pilot project is for public committee meetings, and is available only to members and their staff.
Members may have remarked that the entry into the meeting was much quicker, as they immediately entered as an active participant. All functionalities for active participants will remain the same. Staff will be non-active participants, and can therefore only view the meeting in gallery view.
I would like to thank our witnesses for helping us to carry out this pilot project.
I hope you have a good experience.
As a reminder to all participants in this meeting, screen shots or photos of your screen are not permitted. This was highlighted by Speaker Rota on September 29.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I will outline a few customary rules to follow.
Witnesses and members may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available at the bottom of your screen.
Members attending in person must conduct themselves as they would normally if all committee members were meeting in person in a committee room.
Keep in mind the Board of Internal Economy's guidelines for wearing masks, as well as health protocols.
Before speaking, please wait until you are recognized by name.
If you are on video conference, please click on the microphone to unmute yourself, and if you are in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer. When you have 30 seconds remaining in your questioning time, I will signal you by holding up this yellow sheet of paper.
I would now like to extend a warm welcome to Minister Gould, Minister of International Development, and her team.
We welcome Leslie MacLean, Deputy Minister of International Development; Elissa Golberg, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy; and Caroline Leclerc, Assistant Deputy Minister, Partnerships for Development Innovation.
We have Peter MacDougall, assistant deputy minister, global issues and development; Anick Ouellette, assistant deputy minister and chief financial officer, corporate planning, finance and information technology; and Shirley Carruthers, director general, financial resource, planning and management bureau.
For the benefit of members, I will quickly note that the votes on the main estimates will take place next week, after we have heard from both ministers.
Minister Gould, it is my pleasure to give you the floor for your initial presentation of 10 minutes.