Order.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We are very pleased to be here in Halifax to start our cross-country tour on the challenges facing the manufacturing sector.
This is the 29th meeting this session for members of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. We have been studying since spring the challenges facing the manufacturing sector. We hope to complete this study at the end of this week in terms of hearing from witnesses. Then we will move right into the report that we will present to the government, hopefully in mid-December, in preparation for the budget in February or March.
We will go right to witnesses. We're very pleased to have with us, for the first hour and a half, from Offshore/Onshore Technologies Association of Nova Scotia, Paul McEachern, managing director; and Don MacLeod, legal counsel. Following them will be the president of J.D. Irving, Mr. Jim Irving.
We'll go now to the ten-minute opening statement from Mr. McEachern.