Panellists, welcome.
As you know, the minister responsible for Canada Post has engaged in a series of very extensive consultations that takes basically two parts. The first part was the establishment of a task force to examine the financial viability and sustainability of Canada Post. The task force has completed its work. It has submitted a report that this committee has examined.
The second part, however, is a cross-country consultation with Canadians as individuals, organizations, and municipalities, asking them their views on the future of Canada Post, and trying to solicit their recommendations for the future of Canada Post. We're here today for the second phase of our consultations.
The process that we'll follow is fairly simple. We will ask each of you to offer a five-minute or less opening statement, and that will be followed by questions from all of our committee members. We have approximately one hour or so.
Time is fairly tight, and that's why I'm asking you to try and keep your opening comments to no more than five minutes. It has been our experience that even if you have more things that you think you want to say in an opening statement, that usually comes out in questions during the Q and A process.
I have a list of all of the panellists and we'll begin with Susan Sitlington.