I call the meeting to order.
I'm going to be a bit self-serving here and start by wishing everybody a happy Irish heritage month. It's the first Irish heritage month in Canadian history as of Wednesday, March 10, something in which I take great personal pride.
Welcome, everybody. Thank you for joining us today. This is the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.
Before I welcome all of our witnesses joining us today, I should thank some substitute members who are joining us today: Mr. Lauzon, Mr. McDonald and Ms. Falk.
We are going to proceed to our witnesses. In compliance with our motions that we passed at our last meeting, all of the witnesses have been sound checked; their headsets are working and translation services have been tested. Everything should be compliant, so we shouldn't have any difficulties.
On that note, to our witnesses, you are free to and encouraged to speak in either of the official languages. There is translation at the bottom of your screen for the benefit of others and for your own benefit. Make sure you have that accessible. We are doing this on Zoom. All of us on the committee are used to doing this now.
For our witnesses, sometimes it takes a little bit of patience, because there may be a delay particularly if translation is taking place. I would ask everybody to wait until the other person is finished speaking before answering or asking a question, as the case may be.
If you have any difficulties, please feel free to speak up. My job is to marshal us through the meeting, and I will give you advance warning. It often includes cutting you off if we go past the allotted time for your speaking slot, or for the time you've been allocated for asking or answering questions. I apologize in advance.
I would like to welcome our five groups of witnesses today. We have BMO Capital Markets, Cameco Corporation, Fonds de solidarité des travailleurs du Québec, Torngat Metals and Vale Canada Limited.
Thank you, all, for taking the time to be here today.
Each group will be given up to five minutes to make initial remarks. At the conclusion of the remarks from all of the witnesses, I will then open the floor to questions from committee members.
Why don't we follow the order on the agenda.
Mr. Bahar, from BMO Capital Markets, you may lead us off.