I will call the meeting to order.
As you can see, we have a fairly full schedule in front of us here today. I've asked the officials from the three departments here—Agriculture, Industry, and Finance—to be with us for the first hour. Then, of course, as you can see, for the rest of the day we have a good cross-section of witnesses from different parts of the industry, and obviously a good cross-section of witnesses who have been suggested to us by both government members and opposition members. I think we have a good starting point for the committee here today.
We have the officials here from Agriculture, Finance, and Industry to start the first hour. Before we start with their testimony, I will just read to members from O'Brien and Bosc, as a reminder about what questions the officials will deal with. This is from page 1068:
Particular attention is paid to the questioning of public servants. The obligation of a witness to answer all questions put by the committee must be balanced against the role that public servants play in providing confidential advice to their Ministers. The role of the public servant has traditionally been viewed in relation to the implementation and administration of government policy, rather than the determination of what that policy should be. Consequently, public servants have been excused from commenting on the policy decisions made by the government. In addition, committees ordinarily accept the reasons that a public servant gives for declining to answer a specific question or series of questions which involve the giving of a legal opinion, which may be perceived as a conflict with the witness' responsibility to the Minister, which are outside of their own area of responsibility, or which might affect business transactions.
I just read that as advice to members.
We have with us today Claude Carrière from Agriculture, John Connell from Industry, and Jeremy Rudin from Finance.
I believe, Mr. Carrière, you are going to provide the opening statement on behalf of all three, and then we'll open it up for questions from members.
Mr. Carrière, the floor is yours for ten minutes.