I'm going to call our meeting to order. This is meeting number 14 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities.
We are very pleased to welcome today two individuals from the Canadian Association for Community Living and two individuals from the Council of Canadians with Disabilities.
Bendina Miller is president of the Canadian Association for Community Living, and Michael Bach is the executive vice-president.
John Rae is vice-chairperson of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities. Laurie Beachell is national coordinator.
We want to welcome all four of you here today. Thank you for making time in your schedules to be here.
As you may know, we are going to be embarking on a study that concerns persons with disabilities. So we're very happy to have you here to be able to get some information from you and have a bit of a round table.
I understand that we're going to be splitting up. One group will have seven minutes,and another group will have seven minutes. So we will begin with our first witness, who will have seven minutes, and that will be John Rae.
John, would you like to begin, please?