The meeting will come to order.
We are here today to consider order in council appointments of Berto Volpentesta, Benjamin Dolin, and Dominique Setton-LeMar. Welcome here today. We also have Krista Daley, director general of operations.
We will examine the appointments between 3:30 and 5 o'clock, if that's okay with committee members. I'm allowing a half hour at the end here because we have a couple of things we want to do, and we also will consider the report of the chair on our planned committee travel. I went to the subcommittee on budgets yesterday, so I think we should have a chat about that.
For the benefit of the appointees and the committee members, I will read from Marleau and Montpetit, pages 875, 876, and 877. It says:
The scope of a committee’s examination of Order-in-Council appointees or nominees is strictly limited to the qualifications and competence to perform the duties of the post. Questioning by members of the committee may be interrupted by the Chair, if it attempts to deal with matters considered irrelevant to the committee’s inquiry. Among the areas usually considered to be outside the scope of the committee’s study are the political affiliation of the appointee or nominee, contributions to political parties and the nature of the nomination process itself. Any question may be permitted if it can be shown that it relates directly to the appointee’s or nominee’s ability to do the job. A committee has no power to revoke an appointment or nomination and may only report that they have examined the appointee or nominee and give their judgment as to whether the candidate has the qualifications and competence to perform the duties of the post to which he or she has been appointed or nominated.
I will now go to the nominees. Is there a general statement by the nominees, first of all? Okay, I'll pass it over to you.