Good morning, everyone. I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 14 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to the House order of January 25, 2021. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
So that you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I will outline a few rules to follow.
Members and witnesses may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice at the bottom of your screen of “floor”, “English” or “French”. If the translation is not working, please signal it to me so that we can make sure it gets fixed.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute your mike.
As a reminder, all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.
When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. For the sake of interpretation, I ask that you please not speak over the witnesses. Wait your turn and then pose your question, so that we can make sure we have translation.
With regard to a speakers list, the committee clerk and I will do our best to maintain the order of speaking for all members, whether you are participating virtually or in person.
As is my normal practice, I will hold up the yellow card for when you have 30 seconds remaining in your intervention and the red card for when your time for questions has expired.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motion adopted by the committee on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, the committee is meeting today to commence its study on the domestic manufacturing capacity for COVID-19 vaccine.
I'll now welcome our witnesses.
With us today, we have the Honourable Patty Hajdu, Minister of Health. From the Public Agency of Canada, we have Mr. Iain Stewart, president. From the Department of Health, we have Stephen Lucas, deputy minister.
Each witness will present for up to seven minutes, followed by the rounds of questions.
With that, we will start with Minister Hajdu.
You have the floor for seven minutes.