Good morning, everyone.
This is meeting 79 of the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security, Tuesday, April 16, 2013. Today we are continuing our study on the economics of policing.
We're going to go for an hour and a half with the panel we have here, if that's all right, and then we will move into committee business to discuss some of the issues we have to deal with.
On our panel today we have with us the chief superintendent of the Ontario Provincial Police, Mr. Gary Couture. Welcome. Thank you for coming on a rainy day in Ottawa.
Appearing by video conference from Toronto is the deputy chief of the Toronto Police Service, Michael Federico.
Appearing by video conference from Regina, Saskatchewan on behalf of the Government of Saskatchewan is the deputy minister of corrections and policing at the Ministry of Justice, Dale McFee. We welcome you back.
Our committee wants to thank all of the witnesses for appearing today to help us in our study. I would invite our witnesses to make a brief opening statement before our committee moves into the first round of questioning.
Chief Superintendent Couture, if you would you be so kind as to begin, we look forward to your comments.