I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 130 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance.

Pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee is meeting only to discuss parts 1 to 4 of the subject matter of Bill C-59, an act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023, and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023. Part 5 will be studied at a future meeting of the committee. Just for members' sakes, we're doing parts 1 to 4 today, and we'll do part 5 at a future meeting.

Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format, pursuant to Standing Order 15.1. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application.

I'd like to make a few comments for the benefit of the members. Although this room is equipped with a powerful audio system, feedback events can occur. These can be extremely harmful to interpreters, causing serious injuries. The most common cause of sound feedback is an earpiece worn too close to a microphone. Therefore, we ask all participants to exercise a high degree of caution when handling the earpieces, especially when your microphone or your neighbour's microphone is turned on. In order to prevent incidents and to safeguard the hearing health of the interpreters, I invite participants to ensure that they speak into the microphone into which their headset is plugged and avoid manipulating the earbuds by placing them on the table, away from the microphone, when they are not in use.

I will remind you that all comments should be addressed through the chair. Members in the room, if you wish to speak, raise your hand. Members on Zoom, please use the “raise hand” function. The clerk and I will manage the speaking order as best we can, and we appreciate your patience and understanding in this regard.

Now I'd like to welcome our witnesses today for the study of the subject matter of Bill C-59, an act to implement certain provisions of the fall economic statement tabled in Parliament on November 21, 2023, and certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 28, 2023. We have a number of officials from the Department of Finance who are joining us. Please note that all of these individuals will not be able to sit at the table. If questions arise for those individuals who are not at the table, they will be called and will exchange seats with those who are at the table to answer those questions.

I request that all officials clearly state their name and department before answering a question, please.

At the table, we do have a few individuals who will give us some opening remarks, and those will be on the different parts that we will be looking into today. We have Lindsay Gwyer, who will be addressing part 1; James Greene, who will be addressing part 2; and Amanda Riddell, who will be addressing parts 3 and 4.

Peter Fonseca

$516,830.00