I call the meeting to order.
Welcome to the ninth meeting of the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.
In accordance with the order adopted on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, the committee is meeting to continue its study on the fairness in the services offered to veterans: francophones and anglophones, men and women, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Welcome to our colleagues Ms. Lisa Marie Barron, who is replacing Rachel Blaney, and Mr. Wayne Long, who is replacing Sean Casey.
Today's meeting is taking place in a hybrid format pursuant to the House order of November 25, 2021. Members are attending in person in the room and remotely using the Zoom application. The proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website. Just so that you are aware, the webcast will always show the person speaking rather than the entirety of the committee.
Today's meeting is also taking place in the webinar format. Webinars are for public committee meetings and are available only to members, their staff and witnesses. Members enter immediately as active participants. All functionalities for active participants remain the same. Staff will be non-active participants and can therefore view the meeting only in gallery view.
Before speaking, please wait until I recognize you by name. If you are on the video conference, please click on the microphone icon to unmute yourself. For those in the room, your microphone will be controlled as normal by the proceedings and verification officer. When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. I will remind you that all comments by members and witnesses should be addressed through the chair.
I would now like to welcome our witnesses this evening.
First of all, as an individual, we have Mr. Jean Laurion, Veteran. From the National Association of Federal Retirees, we have Mr. Jean-Guy Soulière, President; Mr. Anthony Pizzino, Chief Executive Officer; and Ms. Sayward Montague, Director, Advocacy. From VETS Canada, we have Ms. Debbie Lowther, Chief Executive Officer and Co‑Founder.
You will have five minutes for your opening remarks. We'll start with Mr. Laurion, then we'll go to Ms. Debbie Lowther, and then we'll come back and split five minutes between Mr. Soulière and Mr. Pizzino.
I have little cards, like they do in soccer, to give you a signal when your time is up. I can already see the smile on Mr. Soulière's face. I think we're going to enjoy hearing him.