Welcome, witnesses and everybody in the audience.
This is the trade committee. We have had a very active session of Parliament so far, with a lot on our plate between softwood lumber, the agreement with Europe, and also our main focus, the TPP, and consulting with stakeholders and Canadians about it.
We've travelled to the western provinces, Quebec, and Ontario. We're also taking individual submissions up until the end of October. MPs are also holding some town halls. We will finish up with the Atlantic provinces and the territories in the fall. We hope to have a report to Parliament in the new year.
That said, welcome, guests. If anybody is here for the first time as a witness, we'd like whichever group you represent to speak for about five minutes. If it goes over five minutes, I'll give you a little reminder to make your conclusions.
When the MPs are in dialogue with you, try to keep the answers short, because it's a big panel and we'd like to get in as much input as we can.
Without further ado, we'll start with our first witness. As an individual, we have Gus Van Harten. Go ahead, sir.