I would ask all the MPs to take their seats, please.
Welcome, panellists, to our House of Commons international trade committee. I don't know if you heard our earlier remarks, but we are a very busy committee. This year we are dealing with the European agreement being tidied up. We have many issues dealing with the United States—softwood lumber and agriculture products. We have some issues there with them now.
One of the biggest things we're taking on this year is the TPP and how it will impact Canadians, the opportunities and challenges that we face in this agreement. It's a huge agreement. There are 12 countries, 40% of the world's GDP. We're talking about 800 million consumers. One way or another, this agreement will affect all Canadians in various ways.
We've been on the road quite a bit, and in Ottawa, receiving briefings. We had over 125 briefings and heard almost 300 witnesses. We've done pretty well eight provinces. We're here now, and we're going to Nova Scotia tomorrow, and we've had video conferences with the territories.
We're one of the first committees in the House of Commons to open up quite a bit to the public. We've been getting emails. We're at over 20,000, and we're still getting them in. We also do an open-mike session at the end, where the audience can have some input.
We're very proud of our committee and we're getting a lot of input. We're learning a lot, too, about what's in the agreement and the details of how it affects Canadians.
We will be finishing up our consultation process at the end of October, then we'll put a report together for the House of Commons, then let the members of Parliament decide where we go from here.
Without further ado, I welcome the panellists here today. What I'd like to do over the next hour is make sure that you guys get your input in and have a dialogue with each of the MPs here, so if you can keep your briefings to five minutes or under, it would be appreciated.
We'll start here with the Social Justice Cooperative of Newfoundland and Labrador. We also have the Association of Seafood Producers and Ocean Choice.
Bill Hynd, go ahead.