Good morning. This is our third meeting of this session of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
We have had some difficulty on short notice getting all the witnesses that committee members have requested. We are pleased that Karl Risser is again here to appear today as a witness. We will continue to pursue the other witnesses you have all listed. We have called more than 20 in the past few days, but with the short notice it is very difficult. I think we will have better luck with almost two weeks' notice. We will bring in witnesses and have several at the meeting on February 24, at which point I hope we can wrap this up.
Today we have Mr. Risser from the Canadian Auto Workers, Shipbuilding, Waterways and Marine Workers Council, who has an opening statement. We also have with us representatives from the Department of Finance as well as from the Department of Industry, who will be pleased to answer any questions you have with regard to EFTA and I'm sure international trade in general. Perhaps I'll introduce our representatives from Finance. Dean Beyea, Patrick Halley, and Kei Moray are here. From the Department of Industry we have Gary McGee and Emile Rochon.
I'm going to ask Karl Risser Jr., the president of the Canadian Auto Workers, Local 1, Shipbuilding, Waterways and Marine Workers Council, to begin.