Thank you very much. Our time is up for this first hour here.
We want to thank both of you for appearing and for your comments today.
We are going to suspend. The video conferences from Calgary and British Columbia are ready, I believe. So we will suspend long enough to allow our guests to leave, and we'll come back here in about 30 seconds.
I'll call this meeting back to order. This is the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security. We're continuing our study of Bill C-51 and its amendments to the Canadian witness protection program.
I want to let the committee know that we are going to take a few moments at the end of the hour to go to committee business. We'll go in camera very briefly, for just a couple of minutes, to deal with a budget.
We are pleased today to have appearing as an individual by video conference from Calgary, Alberta, Mr. John Charles Major, a retired judge of the Supreme Court of Canada.
Also appearing by video conference from Victoria, British Columbia, on behalf of the Government of British Columbia, we have Clayton Pecknold, assistant deputy minister and director of the Ministry of Justice, police services, policing and security programs branch.
I would invite both our guests to make brief opening statements before we proceed to questions from the members of Parliament on our committee. It is my understanding that our time with Justice Major is limited, and he will have to leave us around 10:20. So we'll begin with his comments.
Please begin, sir.