Colleagues, I call this meeting to order.
We are continuing our study on the greening of government, but before we begin and before I introduce the witnesses who are with us in the room today or joining us by video conference, I just want to say publicly and for the record, as the Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, that we have lost a valued member of the public service in Canada with the passing this weekend of Mr. Michael Ferguson. I think everyone on this committee certainly knows that Mr. Ferguson was a frequent visitor and guest of our committee. He provided invaluable information and support to this committee, to parliamentarians in general, and to Canadians.
We are all saddened by his passing, and if I can speak on behalf of the entire committee, we wish to send all our condolences, our prayers and our thoughts to his immediate family and his extended family. Colleagues, thank you for your attention on that matter.
Second, colleagues, we just have a couple of very brief housekeeping notes to make. A revised calendar will be sent out to all offices, I believe, probably tomorrow. This Wednesday we will continue with our study on the greening of government. We've had to make some adjustments. When we contacted all our witnesses or proposed witnesses for some of our future meetings, we had to do some give-and-take on the calendar. So this Wednesday will be the greening government strategy continued.
I also want to inform members that both ministers Qualtrough and Philpott have agreed to meet with us. These meetings are coming up. I believe Minister Qualtrough is on the 20th, and Minister Philpott is on the 25th.