Welcome, everybody, to the first meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. Today is January 29, 2008, and this is the committee's 10th meeting since prorogation.
Today marked the beginning not only of a new year but also of a new stage in the committee's work, as we are beginning a brief study on public service take-up of the action plan for official languages.
Before introducing today's witnesses, I would like to remind the committee members that the steering committee has prepared and sent out a list of witnesses for the next four meetings. Our next meeting will be televised and the sole witness will be the Commissioner of Official Languages.
Without any further ado, I would now like to introduce our witnesses. We have with us today Mr. Bruce Manion, Assistant Deputy Minister at the Department of Canadian Heritage; Mr. Jérôme Moisan, Senior Director at the Official Languages Secretariat; and Mr. Hubert Lussier, Director General of Official Languages Support Programs. We will therefore be hearing representatives from both the official languages program and the secretariat.
I would now like to hand over the floor to our witnesses.