Good morning, everyone, and thank you for coming this morning.
I would like to remind members that this meeting will be held in public today, so please remember that.
The purpose of the meeting today is to begin our discussions on Bill C-16, An Act to amend the Canada Elections Act. We have a lot of ground to cover today, so I ask for the committee's diligence. We've invited the Government House Leader and his officials to appear today at this meeting. As well, we have invited the Chief Electoral Officer to appear following the minister.
I also remind the members that at our business meeting last week we agreed that the questioning rounds would be limited to five minutes. I will be watching and trying to assist committee members in keeping their questions short so that we can actually leave ample time for answers from the witnesses, as that, of course, is the point. As usual, our round of questioning will begin with the Liberals, then the Conservative Party, then the Bloc and the NDP, each having five minutes. We will certainly keep track, or try our very best to keep track, of members who have put up their hands. Please make sure you leave your hands up until either the clerk or I see you. That way we won't miss anyone at all.
The only other thing I want to mention is that we have divided the time. If necessary, the minister will have the first hour, if in fact that is needed, and be followed by Mr. Kingsley, who will take up the balance of time if that much time is necessary.
Finally, I'm going to ask for five minutes of committee time at the end to discuss future business.
That just gives you an idea of how I would like to conduct the business of the meeting today.
Without any further ado, I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the Honourable Rob Nicholson. I appreciate your taking the time on such short notice.
As members know, Mr. Nicholson is the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister Responsible for Democratic Reform. He is also, of course, the sponsor of Bill C-16. Minister, I thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to appear before the committee today to discuss Bill C-16. I would like to ask you to start by introducing your team. Then, by all means, go on with your opening statement, and we'll follow that with questions.