I call this meeting to order.
Welcome, everyone, to meeting number 15 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.
We are meeting today pursuant to the orders of reference of April 11 and April 20, 2020. The committee is 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. As at the last meeting, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
In order to facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules to follow.
First, interpretation in this video conference will work very much like in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of 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 hold down the space bar while you are speaking, and when you release the space bar your mike will mute itself, just like a walkie-talkie.
I will remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair. Should members need to request the floor outside of their designated time for questions, they should activate their mike and state that they have a point of order. If a member wishes to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, they should use the “Raise Hand” function. This will signal to the chair your interest to speak. In order to do so, you should click on “Participants” at the bottom of the screen. When the list pops up, you will see, next to your name, that you can click “Raise Hand”.
When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. The use of headsets is strongly encouraged. If you have earbuds with a microphone, please hold the microphone near your mouth when you're speaking to boost the sound quality for our interpreters.
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 a technical team will work to resolve that. Please note that we may need to suspend during these times as we do need to ensure that all members are able to participate fully.
Before we get started, would everyone please check their screen in the top right-hand corner to ensure that they are on “Gallery” view. With this view, you should be able to see all the participants in a grid-like fashion. 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 group will have 10 minutes for an opening statement, followed by the usual rounds of questions from members.
I'd like now to welcome our witnesses.