To me it's more of reaching out to them. They may want to talk to the next Parliament, or whatever, but I think it's kind of saying okay.... I'm suggesting we just have a half-hour video conference at a time that would be good for them because there is a four-hour difference. Are you okay with my just reaching out? If anybody can make it, then we'll set something up and we'll just do a half hour and see what they want to say and we'll wish them well, that kind of thing.
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: Maybe we could do it on Thursday morning or something, just for a half hour. Looking at their time, we could do something like 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, which would be 2:30 p.m. in England. We'll give them an opening and if it works, it works, and whoever wants can chime in. We'll go to a meeting room somewhere, and away we go.
Sorry for the delay. We have a big morning ahead of us, colleagues.
We are going to divide this up into three segments to try to do an hour and 15 minutes with each segment with a little break in between to get people switched over. For anybody who is listening out there, besides the witnesses who are coming forth today, anyone else, Canadians and stakeholders, can send in a brief with a maximum of 2,500 words. It should come to the clerk of the committee. The information is available on the committee's website.
Without further ado, welcome, witnesses. Many of you have been here before. As you know, our topic is Bill C-100, a new NAFTA, I guess you would call it. Usually five minutes per witness is fine. If it goes over or under, that's fine too. We're not being too strict today. Then we'll just open it up for dialogue with the MPs.
First is the Business Council of Canada. We have Mr. Kingston. Go ahead, sir.