Colleagues, I call this meeting to order.
This is meeting number 11 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.
Before we start, I'd like to announce that the next meeting of OGGO is this Friday, May 15, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For next week, we have yet to hear from our whips as to the schedule. If you recall, at our last meeting we talked about all committee members going to their respective whips to try to tell them whether or not they wished to sit and meet on Monday, May 18, which will be Victoria Day. It's a statutory holiday. If you haven't done so already, I suggest that you contact your whips and give them your preference as to whether or not you would like to meet on Monday, May 18.
Colleagues, in just a few moments, we'll convene the meeting officially. I have asked both ministers—Minister Lebouthillier and Minister Qualtrough—to keep their remarks to no more than six minutes each, rather than the customary 10 minutes. That will save us a bit of time.
I'm also asking this of witnesses, ministers and committee members. If you begin speaking in one official language, please complete your remarks and all questions and answers after that in the one language of your preference. That way, we won't have to flip back and forth between languages. From a technical standpoint, it should then go much more smoothly.
When we get into the questions and answers, colleagues, we normally start a little late, particularly in the first hour, because of the technical issues we have to go through. As a consequence, we never seem to be able to complete a full round. Having said that, what I'm suggesting for this first hour is that we amend the question period so that the first round will be for five minutes each, the second round for four minutes each, and the third and final round for two minutes each, which should allow us to get every member involved and hopefully get answers for your questions.
With that, colleagues, I will now turn it over to Minister Lebouthillier for her six-minute opening statement.
Minister, the floor is yours.