Ms. Aitken, there's no good reason for that. We'll have to make a point of coming back.
Obviously you know the purpose of your appearance here. As I'm sure you're also undoubtedly aware, the Honourable Judy Foote, the minister responsible for Canada Post, has engaged in a very extensive and exhaustive consultation process concerning the future of Canada Post. The first part of that consultation process was for the minister to establish a four-person task force whose mandate was to examine the financial viability and sustainability of Canada Post. They did that, and they submitted their report to our committee. We examined it and we had that task force before us in a format very similar to this.
The second part of the consultation process is why we're here. The minister asked this committee to go across Canada to talk to individuals, organizations, and municipalities that have an interest in Canada Post and are affected and impacted by Canada Post and its future. We want to hear your opinions on what you think should be the future of Canada Post.
The process is pretty simple. We'll ask each one of you to make a short opening statement, hopefully no more than five-minutes. Once that is concluded, we will go into a round of questions during which all my colleagues around the table will have an opportunity to question you about your brief.
I suggest to you that if you have comments you think will exceed five minutes, try to pare them down. It's been our experience that most of the comments you would probably like to make in an opening statement get covered during the question-and-answer period anyway. There will be ample opportunity for all of you to expand upon your thoughts when that occurs.
With that brief introduction, we'll get going right away.
The first panellist I have on my list to make an opening statement is Mr. Andrew Scribilo, president of the Kenora and District Chamber of Commerce.
Andrew—if I call you that, after we've had an introduction—please commence. You have five minutes.