We are coming to order now that we have the presence of the honourable Mr. Bains.
Before we proceed, I want to run over a bit of the agenda for today. I will discuss this later when we have concluded our examination of these witnesses, because I don't think it's going to take a long time today. We do have votes. At 5:15 the bell will ring.
My suggestion is that we go probably to 4:30 with the witnesses, and then we'll revert to committee business. I want to talk about this report on the free trade agreement between Canada and the states of the European Free Trade Association and just what the intent of the committee is--whether or not we want to continue to hear witnesses, how many more we want to hear, and whether or not we want to do a full report on it. I just want to get a sense from the committee.
We can do that, as I say, at perhaps 4:30, 4:35, if members have sufficiently examined the witnesses at that point.
So with that, I'm going to welcome our witnesses today. Thank you for coming, and in some cases on short notice. I do appreciate it.
We have Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, counsel for the international trade group of Lang Michener. Thank you for coming.
We have George Haynal, vice-president, government relations with Bombardier, who has been with us before. We're delighted to have you back. Thank you for coming.
Because of the short time for the appearance of the witnesses...we don't have full statements that they want to make beforehand, but I'm going to ask each of our witnesses today just to briefly give a little background--perhaps pick an area. I know the shipping law area is one you're particularly familiar with, Ms. Cherniak, and maybe you might have a few comments on that. Mr. Haynal, you could speak just broadly on your impression of this agreement as you know of it. Then we can proceed to questions.
If that's agreeable to everyone, I'll ask Ms. Cherniak to proceed.