Good morning, everybody. Now that we have a quorum and we have our witnesses before us, we will start the proceedings.
Conversations on the side I hope will be at a minimum while the witnesses are addressing us.
The norm is that the witnesses will have ten minutes to give an overview. There's a lot more that I know they could share, depending on how much information there is, so the questions may lead to more advanced information. Because we're starting at five minutes to nine, we're going to go to five minutes to ten. We've set an hour for this part of it. We'll have a brief adjournment and then go into the business section.
First, I'd like to say, as we know, that this is under Standing Order 108, a briefing on departmental programs and policies.
We're very pleased this morning to have with us, from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bernard Butler, who has been here with us before. He is the director general of policy and research. Also, we have with us Charlotte Stewart, who we've met before as well and who is the director general, service delivery and program management. We have both the service side and the policy side represented this morning.
Welcome. It's nice to have you before the committee. It is a new session of Parliament and a new committee, and we have a number of new members on the committee. We look forward to your presentation.
Thank you, and please feel free to go ahead.