Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 118 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, also known, of course, as the mighty OGGO.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(c) and the motion adopted by the committee on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, the committee is resuming its study on federal government consulting contracts awarded to McKinsey & Company.
We have new instructions, colleagues, regarding the feedback for our interpreters, so please listen carefully.
Before we begin, I'll remind all members and other meeting participants in the room of the following important preventative measures.
To prevent disruptive and potentially harmful feedback incidents that can cause injuries, all in-person participants are reminded to keep their earpieces away from the microphones at all times. As indicated in the communiqué from the Speaker to all members on Monday, April 29, the following measures have been taken to help prevent audio feedback incidents.
All earpieces have now been replaced by a model that greatly reduces the probability of audio feedback. The new earpieces are black. Please use only the approved black earpieces. All unused earpieces will be unplugged at the start of every meeting, so you'll have to plug them in.
When you're not using your microphone, please place it face down on the middle of the sticker that has been put on your desk in front of you. Please consult the cards on the table for guidelines to prevent audio feedback incidents.
The room layout, as you've noticed, has been adjusted to keep everyone a bit further apart, which will help with feedback incidents as well.
These measures are in place so that we can conduct our business without interruption and protect the health and safety of all participants, especially our valued interpreters, who are smiling at us but also threatening and menacing if we don't follow the rules.
Thanks, everyone, for your co-operation.
We'll start with our witness, our very valued procurement ombudsman.
Welcome back to OGGO. We appreciate you coming in on relatively short notice and we look forward to hearing from you.