I'd like to call the meeting to order.
Welcome to the members. I appreciate that with the votes today after question period we're about ten minutes late getting started and some of our members have not yet arrived, but I anticipate they will be here soon.
To refresh everyone's memory, we have the minister, the Honourable Chuck Strahl, here today to talk about Bill C-30. He will be here until 4:30 but his officials will remain until 5:30, for the full committee meeting, to pose questions and have some answers to those questions.
As we did the last time, our typical process is that once the minister is finished with his opening remarks, we will have the first round of questions, which will be seven minutes long, followed by subsequent rounds of five minutes. As the last time, I will be fairly tight on the time in an effort to get as many turns in as possible.
With that, on behalf of the committee, I'd like to welcome you here, Minister Strahl, and ask if you have an opening comment for us.