I call this meeting to order. Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), it is our study on employability in Canada.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone for being here today. Some of you probably are aware, or may not be aware, that we've been travelling across this country dealing with issues of employability. We were in Newfoundland, Halifax, and Montreal; for the last two days we've been here in Toronto. We'll be heading out west to Vancouver, Calgary, and Saskatoon sometime in November.
We want to thank each and every one of you for being here. This is an important matter. I can assure you that as we move forward on these issues, we get all kinds of different discussions and different points of view, but they're all helpful in making recommendations on the employability issue.
In terms of what we have going on with the microphones, they will automatically turn on and off, so when I identify you, the people at the back will recognize who's going to be speaking and will turn those on for you. There is translation here. Number one is for English, number two is for French.
Each of you will have seven minutes for an opening statement. I'm going to try to keep to it really tightly, because we do have more people presenting. We have six presenters. We need to get through that quickly, so I will keep you to your seven minutes. I'll give you a one-minute warning just so you know that it's coming towards the end. If you don't get a chance to get it all in, hopefully you can use the questions as they're asked by individuals. We'll have one round of seven minutes, followed by a second round of five minutes.
We're going to get started a minute or so early, and I'm going to start on my list here.
Mr. Rae, we're going to let you go first, and you have seven minutes. Now, don't feel you have to use all your seven minutes, ladies and gentlemen, but you're certainly welcome to the seven minutes.
Mr. Rae, it's good to see you, sir.