I call the meeting to order.
Welcome back, everyone, from the break week in your riding. I hope everything went well.
Today we'll continue with our study on TPP.
Welcome to our guests. Our committee has been fairly busy. We're dealing not only with TPP but with other issues as well, including softwood lumber and the European trade agreement. We've been travelling quite a bit over the last few months. We visited all the provinces and we have had many meetings with stakeholders. We're also getting submissions from the public. The clerk says we have had more than 20,000 emails from individuals. The agreement is a big deal, with 40% of the world's GDP involved.
As I said, we got to every province and we saved the best for last—the territories. We would have loved to go up to your area, but we're kind of constrained for time and money. At any rate, we welcome you and your perspective on TPP and any other issues you want to talk about with trade.
We usually give each presenter around five minutes. Then we open it up for dialogue between the MPs and our witnesses.
In the room with us today is Mr. Marshall, from the Mining Association of Canada. From Yellowknife we have Lois Little, and from Whitehorse we have Vikki Quocksister, Richard Karp, and Stan Thompson.
Mr. Marshall, perhaps you could start first. After your presentation, we'll move on to the territories.
Go ahead, sir.