Good afternoon, everybody.
We have 10 minutes set aside for committee business at the outset. There are three things to discuss, all on a preliminary basis.
One is the PDAC conference, starting on Sunday, March 5. We've received word back that PDAC is going to put on something on the Sunday for all members of Parliament, but it's going to be focused on natural resource issues, obviously with a focus on the members of this committee. Anybody who wants to go is free to do so. After that you're on your own—from a committee perspective, anyway.
Second, we have received word back from the Liaison Committee. They have looked at our preliminary travel budget proposal and have asked us to come back to submit a detailed travel budget proposal to be reviewed at the next Liaison Committee meeting on March 9, which is Thursday of the first week we're back after break week.
You should have a two-page document before you, with some numbers put together by our analyst and clerk for the eastern and western portion of the travel proposal we discussed earlier, which went before the Liaison Committee. We had to do up the proposal we submitted on the basis of a range, which we did, of between $100,000 and $150,000. This one comes in significantly lower, for a total of about $84,000.
What I propose, rather than getting into it today, is to let people take time to look at it and make some suggestions over the course of the next week. When we come back on Tuesday March 7, we'll set aside some time for committee business that day to deal with and finalize it so we can get it to the Liaison Committee the following day, the Wednesday, so they can consider it on the Thursday.
T.J.