Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the fifth meeting of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
I'm going to introduce our witnesses in a moment, but first I want to advise you that former minister Thompson will be coming to the committee at 12:30 today, and then we'll be proceeding up to the Parliamentary Restaurant.
At 12:10 we will have four what are, I hope, brief pieces of business, which we'll go in camera to deal with, and then we'll be prepared to receive Mr. Thompson at 12:30.
It's my hope as well that we'll proceed down the stairs and maybe briefly pop into room 112 north to see the new sculpting inlaid in the walls. This committee, four years ago, started the initiative to have them placed there. It would be nice to see those with former minister Thompson, after which we'll go directly to the New Zealand room in the restaurant and have a cordial lunch of celebration for the service that Mr. Thompson gave to the veterans of Canada.
Mr. Stoffer.