Good afternoon, everyone. I call this meeting to order. Welcome to meeting number eight of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health.
Today we will meet for two hours. Because of the late start, that will take us to 6:14 eastern to hear from witnesses on our study of Canada's health workforce.
Before I introduce today's witnesses, I have a few regular reminders for hybrid meetings. We are meeting in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021, with members attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.
I would like to remind those who are participating virtually not to take screenshots of your screen. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
All public health advisories as well as the directive of the Board of Internal Economy of October 19, 2021, are in force and will be observed.
To begin, each organization has five minutes to make their opening statements before rounds of questions for the remainder of the two hours.
We are very pleased to have with us this afternoon the following witnesses: As an individual, we have Bacchus Barua, the director of health policy studies at Fraser Institute; from the Canadian Association of Radiologists, Dr. Gilles Soulez, president; from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, Linda Silas, president; from the Canadian Medical Association, Dr. Katharine Smart, president; from HealthCareCAN, Paul-Émil Cloutier, president and CEO; and Elaine Watson, chief human resources officer, Covenant Health.
Thank you all for taking the time to be with us and to testify today.
We will proceed in the order listed on the notice of meeting.
Mr. Barua, you have the floor for five minutes. Welcome to the committee.