I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 10 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology. Pursuant to the order of reference of Saturday, April 11, the committee is meeting for the purpose of receiving evidence concerning matters relating to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today's meeting is taking place by video conference. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
Members and the witnesses, I would like to remind you to please wait until I recognize you by name before speaking. When you are ready to speak, please unmute your microphone and then return to mute when you are finished speaking. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly so that the interpreters can do their great work.
As is my normal practice, I will hold up a yellow card for when you have 30 seconds left in your intervention, and I will hold up a red card for when your time for questions has expired.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses. Tonight we have the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food; the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages; Siddika Mithani, president, Canadian Food Inspection Agency; Chris Forbes, deputy minister for the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food; and from the Department of Industry we have Mr. Simon Kennedy, deputy minister; and Mr. Paul Thompson, associate deputy minister.
We will begin with witness testimony. Each of the witnesses will have 10 minutes to present.
Minister Joly, you have the floor for 10 minutes.