I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number nine 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 to receive evidence concerning matters related to the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today's meeting is taking place by video conference, and the proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
As is customary practice, the webcast will always only show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee. To facilitate the work of our interpreters and ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few guidelines.
One, interpretation in this video conference will work very much like in a regular committee meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen for floor, English or French. Click on the globe icon to see these options.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. When you are ready to speak, you can either click on the microphone icon to activate your mike or you can hold down the space bar while you are speaking. When you release the space bar, your mike will mute itself, very much like a walkie-talkie. I remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.
Should members need to request the floor outside their designated time for questions, they should activate their mike and state that they have a point of order.
If a member wishes to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, they should use the "Raise hand" function. This will signal to the chair your interest to speak. To do so, you should click on "Participants" at the bottom of the screen. When the list pops up, you will see next to your name that you can click "Raise hand".
When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute.
The use of headsets is strongly encouraged.
Should any technical challenges arise, for example, in relation to interpretation or if you are accidentally disconnected, please advise the chair or the clerk immediately and the technical team will work to resolve this. Please note that we may need to suspend during these times as we need to ensure all members are able to participate fully.
Before we get started, I would ask everyone to click on their screens in the top right-hand corner and ensure they are on gallery view. With this view, you should be able to see all the participants in a grid view. It will ensure that all video participants can see one another.
If a member needs to leave temporarily for any reason, I would ask that they please leave their video feed on.
During this meeting, we will follow the same rules that usually apply to opening statements and the questioning of witnesses during our regular meetings.
As is my normal practice, I will hold up a yellow card when you have 30 seconds left in your intervention, and I will hold up a red card when your time for questions has expired.
Today MP Paul Manly from the Green Party is joining us and would like to have a round of questions. Does the committee agree for MP Manly to have a two and a half minute slot at the end of the second round?
Thank you.