Thank you very much for being here. I appreciate your taking this time to come and talk to us.
I'm Irene Mathyssen, and I'm the member of Parliament for London—Fanshawe. I am also a vice-chair of the committee. I'm a member of the New Democratic Party caucus.
Unlike others on the committee, I have a long history with this particular committee. I've been an MP for ten and a half years. What has become very clear to me in those intervening years is that we've had lots of discussions, lots of reports, and lots of witnesses, and still we haven't been able to arrive at the solution to what are, I recognize, very complex problems, but the solutions are there.
I am eternally optimistic, despite ten and a half years of being an MP, that if, this time, we listen carefully and have the courage and the political will to make happen the things that should happen, we can get there. I'm determined that this is what I want to do, and no matter how much longer I have in this job, I want that to be part of what I and this committee accomplish.
Thank you again for being here.