Good morning. Bonjour. I call the meeting to order.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108, we will resume our study of the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board. That will be for the first hour, from 9 o'clock until 10 o'clock. At 10 o'clock we will take a break and then come back to clause-by-clause consideration of Madam Beaumier's bill, Bill C-362.
Welcome, all members.
I welcome new members who don't normally sit with us: Penny Priddy for the NDP, good morning; and Carolyn Bennett for the Liberals, who, among other things, is our critic for the status of persons with disabilities.
I want to first explain why I'm in a wheelchair this morning. I'm spending the day in a wheelchair as part of an experience with the Canadian Paraplegic Association. As some of you will know, the CPA was formed in 1945. It started because of the veterans who were coming back from World War II.
In Nova Scotia, in 1952, the Nova Scotia branch of the Canadian Paraplegic Association was formed. Tonight in Halifax there will be a big dinner of the CPA, with Dr. Ivar Mendez as guest speaker. Two MPs--myself and Alexa McDonough--are spending the day in wheelchairs. Alexa is in Halifax; I'm here on Parliament Hill. I'm very pleased that David Hinton and Bobby White are with us today, in the back row. They are both with the CPA.
As members of Parliament, we know we have a colleague, a quadriplegic, Steven Fletcher, who has highlighted for many of us the personal experience of what it's like to live with this kind of injury. In spite of that, going around Parliament Hill you find there are a lot of barriers. Transportation is provided through a van, but there are issues, but there are many more issues in the rest of the country. So today I'm very pleased to be part of this experience, and in particular to do so in this committee. Part of its mandate is the status of persons with disabilities, so I think it's appropriate.
We're not talking about that today, but I do want to thank David and Bobby for their assistance. And if you believe in the issue, you can always support them by pledging your support personally to me for the CPA today, and I'll give you a website you can follow. Anyway, thank you all for your indulgence on that.
We will move to our witnesses on the study of the Employment Insurance Financing Board. We have with us this morning, from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, David Stewart-Patterson, the executive vice-president. From the CFIB, we have Garth Whyte and Corinne Pohlmann. Garth is the executive vice-president and Corinne Pohlmann is the vice-president of national affairs.
We know you couldn't join us last week. Members, I believe from all parties, expressed the wish that you could both have the opportunity to be with us to give us some thoughts on this new employment insurance crown corporation. We're delighted you could join us.
I know from past experience on finance and other committees that you're both familiar with how parliamentary committees work. We'll ask each of you to give us a 10-minute presentation and then we'll take questions from members.
Thank you for joining us, and I'll start with Mr. Stewart-Patterson.