Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to meeting number 20 of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Today is Thursday, May 1, 2014.
I will quickly mention that we have set aside some time at the end of today's meeting to deal with some housekeeping issues.
Joining us for the first hour of our study on the main estimates, we have the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Employment and Social Development, along with the Honourable Candice Bergen, Minister of State for Social Development. Welcome. Thank you, ministers, for taking time to be with us today.
From the departmental side, the ministers are joined by Mr. Ian Shugart, deputy minister of the Department of Employment and Social Development, and Alain Séguin, chief financial officer.
From Service Canada we have Paul Thompson, assistant deputy minister from the processing and payment services branch. We also have Mr. Evan Siddall, president and CEO of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
Welcome to all of you. Members, since the meeting will be split into two one-hour sessions, we will go with five-minute rounds of questioning when we get to that point.
I'd now like to open it up to Minister Kenney to begin his remarks.