I call this meeting to order.
Welcome to meeting number 109 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2) and the motions adopted by the committee on Thursday, March 9 and Tuesday, December 5, 2023, the committee is resuming its study of the recognition of Persian Gulf veterans and the definition of wartime service.
Today's meeting is taking place in hybrid format, pursuant to the Standing Orders. All comments must be addressed through the chair.
I would like to inform members of the committee that we have confirmation of two ministers for this study. They are the Minister of Veterans Affairs and the Minister of Defence.
In the framework of this study, the Minister of Veterans Affairswill appear before this committee on Monday, October 28 and the Minister of National Defencewill appear on Thursday, October 31.
I would remind committee members that they will be given a limited amount of speaking time during the question and answer period. I invite members to time themselves because they tend, at times, to exceed their time. Unfortunately, should they do so, I will have to interrupt. That said, I will always remind members when they have one minute remaining, but once the clock runs out, I'll have to stop them and give someone else the floor.
I would like to welcome our colleague MP Charlie Angus, who is replacing Ms. Blaney.
I'd like to put the following proposal to the committee. For the second hour of our meeting, we have only one witness.
For the first hour, we have two witnesses. I think it should be okay to have an hour and 15 minutes with those two witnesses, and 45 minutes with the other one, because he's alone. Is that okay, or would you like to have one hour with the first witnesses and one hour with the second witness?
I heard someone ask if we can have the three together for two hours.