Good morning everyone and welcome to the 26th meeting of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development.
We are continuing our study on northern economic development.
This morning we welcome an excellent panel representing the industries, particularly in the north, and the non-renewable resource sector, which we know is important to the northern economy.
Members, you'll recall that our consideration today is in anticipation of a more comprehensive study of northern economic development.
Our witnesses today represent four organizations. We'll go down the list. Each organization is welcome to provide a ten-minute opening presentation. Because there are four here today, we will try to be strict and adhere to the ten minutes, so try to gear it to that. I'll try to let you know if we're starting to get close or going slightly over. When we go to questions from members, we will try to stay with five-minute question and answer periods, if we can, to get more questions in, considering the size of our esteemed panel here today.
We'll start off with and welcome Mike Peters, representing the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.