Good afternoon, hon. members, witnesses and guests.
This is the 18th meeting of the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. On the agenda, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), we have the study of Northern Territories Economic Development: Barriers and Solutions.
This afternoon we are welcoming four presentations as we continue our study of barriers and solutions to economic development in the north.
Members, I'll also say that we do have a brief bit of committee business at the end, so we will try to finish up our regular meeting at about 15 minutes past five.
I'll apologize in advance for the rather uncomfortably warm room that we have this afternoon. This is our third meeting in this room today. We are going to do our best, but please accept my apologies. We have some extra water on hand, and we'll make it through.
We're going to begin with a presentation by Monsieur Jacques Plante. Monsieur Plante is the president of Nasittuq Corporation. He will be followed by Mr. Tony Butler, who is the president of Pan Arctic Inuit Logistics Corporation. You will recall that was one of the organizations we tried to meet with when we were actually in Iqaluit, so we are delighted to have them here today. Following that we'll go to Mr. Zehr from the Nunasi Corporation, and Mr. Page from NRTEE.
Let's begin with Monsieur Plante.
I understand that Mr. Plante and Mr. Butler are going to take about five minutes each. If you go over a little bit on that, it's fine. Let's begin with five minutes for Monsieur Plante.