I call the meeting to order.
This is the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, meeting number 28 on Thursday, March 15, 2012. This meeting is televised.
The orders of the day are for the study, “Standing on Guard for Thee: Ensuring that Canada's Immigration System is Secure”.
We have two witnesses today appearing by video conference from Toronto, although I think they're both from the Region of Peel, but I'm not sure.
We have Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, the director of surveillance and epidemiology at the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. She is a physician specializing in public health and infectious diseases, particularly with respect to immunization. She has been scientific director of surveillance and epidemiology at Public Health Ontario since shortly after Ontario's new agency started operations in 2008. She is also an associate professor at the University of Toronto.
Prior to immigrating to Canada with her family in 2007, Dr. Crowcroft worked for a decade at the United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency as a national expert in immunization.
The second witness is Dr. Eileen de Villa, who is the associate medical officer of communicable diseases and environmental health for Peel Public Health. She is an associate medical officer of health for the Region of Peel. Her responsibilities include providing technical support and medical expertise to public health staff in the management of cases and infectious disease outbreaks.
On behalf of the committee I'd like to thank both of you for appearing today by video conference to help us with our study on security.
You have, between you, 10 minutes.
Thank you. You may begin.