I call this meeting to order. I'd like to welcome you all to meeting number 11 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health. We are meeting today entirely virtually. Pursuant to the order of reference of Tuesday, March 24, we are meeting for the purpose of receiving evidence concerning matters related to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today's meeting is taking place entirely by video conference and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. Just so you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee. I'd also like to note that this is historic. It is the very first entirely virtual meeting of any House of Commons committee. I'd like to thank the House staff, the technicians, and everyone who has worked so hard over this past couple of weeks to bring this together. I know you're on tenterhooks back there and are hoping everything works well. From a long career in IT, with my first computer experience writing Fortran on punch cards, I know that we've come a long way, and I think we'll be fine. I give you all kudos for what you've done in such short order.
I'll carry on with some housekeeping first. To facilitate the work of our interpreters and to ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow. First, interpretation in this video conference will work very much as it does in a regular committee meeting. You have a choice at the bottom of your screen of either floor English or French. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can either click on the microphone icon to activate your mike, or you can hold down the space bar while you are speaking, and when you release the bar your mike will mute itself again just like a walkie-talkie. That may be an old-time reference; I don't know.
All comments by members and witnesses should be addressed to the chair. Should you need to request the floor outside of your designated time for questions, you should activate your mike and state that you have a point of order. If you wish to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, you should use the “raise hand” function. This will signal to the chair your interest in speaking. In order to do so, you should click on the participants at the bottom of the screen, and when the screen pops up, next to your name you can click “raise hand”.
When speaking, speak slowly and clearly, and when not speaking, you should mute your mike. We of course encourage strongly the use of headsets. Should any technical challenges arise, for example, in relation to interpretation, or if you are accidentally disconnected, please advise the chair or the clerk immediately and the technical team will work to resolve these problems. Please note that we may need to suspend at times to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.
Before we get started, can everyone click their screen in the top right-hand corner and ensure they are on gallery view? With this view you should be able to see all of the participants in grid view, and it will ensure that all video participants can see one another. During this meeting we will follow the same rules that usually apply to opening statements and the questioning of witnesses during our regular meetings. Each witness will have 10 minutes for an opening statement followed by the usual rounds of questions from members.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses. We have, as an individual, the honourable David Dingwall, president and vice-chancellor of Cape Breton University; from the Canadian Public Health Association, Ian Culbert, executive director; from the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec, Linda Lapointe, vice-president; and from the William Osler Health System, Dr. Naveed Mohammad, executive vice-president, quality, medical and academic affairs. We will start with Mr. Dingwall.
Mr. Dingwall, please go ahead. You have 10 minutes.