Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin the 48th meeting of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. I welcome committee members and the crew here up front on our continuing study on the greening of electricity consumption in Canada--natural gas and cogeneration.
Our witnesses today are from the National Energy Board. We're welcoming John McCarthy, business leader in commodities, and also Bob Modray, technical specialist, economics and energy analysis, in the commodities business unit. In addition to that, we will also hear from the Forest Products Association of Canada, Avrim Lazar, the president and chief executive officer. Welcome.
We are, as you'll note, televised today, so just to those millions in the viewing audience across Canada and around the world, I'll explain that many of us are wearing a carnation today for multiple sclerosis. So that explains that to those television viewers on CPAC, the Internet, and around the world.
We will begin today with opening statements from our witnesses. We're asking you to try to keep it to about ten minutes each, at which time we will proceed with questions.
We decided we were going to start with the National Energy Board, I think. For the National Energy Board, then, John McCarthy. John.