Good afternoon, everybody.
Thank you for joining us for what is our first formal meeting of the committee in this session.
As everybody knows, we've been tasked by the trade committee to review some provisions of some legislation regarding the free trade agreement that's pending approval by the House.
We agreed on some witnesses last week, and we've been fortunate enough to be joined today by officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Natural Resources.
Lady and gentlemen, thank you for coming.
We have, from Foreign Affairs, Steve Verheul as well as Zachary Archambault and Nicola Waterfield; and Jeff Labonté, from Natural Resources.
I'm not going to go on at all about the process, because all of you know it probably as well or better than the people around this table do. I'll simply say thank you for joining us.
Each department has up to 10 minutes to deliver remarks. I understand that Foreign Affairs is going to lead the way.
Mr. Labonté, you're going to wait until the question and answer session to make some remarks.
Mr. Verheul, I'm assuming you're going to start us off. The floor is yours.