Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Bonjour à tous. Welcome to the seventh meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.
We are advancing on our study of the e-commerce market in Canada. We have some esteemed guests with us. I'll take some time to introduce them.
Our first two witnesses, appearing as individuals, are Michael Geist, a Canada research chair in Internet and e-commerce law, University of Ottawa; and Jacques St-Amant, a lecturer in the department of legal sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
From Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters we have Mathew Wilson, vice-president, national policy; and Martin Lavoie, director of manufacturing competitiveness and innovation policy.
I'll just advise members that an organization may have two representatives but they will be giving just one opening statement.
From Ryerson University we have Wendy Cukier, vice-president of research and innovation.
Finally, from the Ottawa Centre for Regional Innovation, we have Blair Patacairk, senior director of investment; and Samer Forzley, managing director of Market Drum.
I hope I got all your names correct. We'll start, as usual, with opening comments. You will have six minutes for your opening comments. Then we'll go to a rotation of questions from the members here.
We'll begin with Mr. Geist, for six minutes.