Good morning members, ladies and gentlemen. I want to welcome you all today and thank you very much. This is a very busy time of year for everybody, and it's great to see folks are coming out this morning.
I want to advise members and witnesses that this meeting today is being held in public. I would also like to advise members, as is the usual case, that I'm going to need five to ten minutes, or perhaps even fifteen minutes, at the end of this meeting—I will watch the clock—to discuss future business.
Members, today's subject is still Bill C-31. Today we have four witnesses with us from four different groups. We will allow the witnesses to open with a brief statement before we start our round of questions.
Ladies and gentlemen and colleagues, today at the witness table we have Barbara Carroll, executive director of Debra Dynes Family House and chair of the Coalition of Community Houses Ottawa; Mary-Martha Hale, chair of the Alliance to End Homelessness in Ottawa and executive director of the Anglican Social Services--Centre 454. Thank you.
We also have Mr. Bill Nothing with us and Mr. Robert Hepburn, the national communications officer with the Canadian Federation of Students.
We will offer the witnesses an opportunity for opening statements. We tend to try to keep them to five minutes, but we're not that formal, and if you don't need the five then that's perfect as well. Take a moment to introduce yourself, where you're from. I have done so, but feel free to do that for the record, as well.
We'll start with you, Mr. Hepburn. Thank you very much for coming.