Evidence of meeting #35 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Why can't we start the report? Would it be ready for November 17?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
That was at my request. If you remember, Mark, I don't think I'm going to be here for that meeting, and I asked the committee, saying I would like to be there when it was doing the report. So that was a request from me.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Okay, so we would have November 17 and 26 for program review.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Yes, November 17 and 26, and then that would just move up the rest of them there.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
So we would go first to GMOs, right? December 1 would be for GMOs?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Yes, and I see where you're going; I just hadn't turned the page yet.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
I'm just going on with what we're doing. We're just picking up a day. We're bumping them ahead.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Yes. What that would leave, then, is two meetings at the end instead of three. The meeting that's now tentatively written in there on GMOs for December 1 would move to December 3, if you were to stick with the same thing. I'm sure we'll hear some discussion on that.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
No, we have GMOs on December 1 because we have program review on November 17 and 26, right?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
So then we go at GMOs right on December 1, and then we still have one float day, December 3.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
We have three float days because we are here on December 8 and 10 as well.
Mr. Valeriote.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Valeriote Liberal Guelph, ON
Mr. Chair, when it comes to GMOs, I know I had requested, as did Alex, that GMOs be discussed. I can't speak for Alex, but I understood, when I made the suggestion, that GMOs really pertained to competitiveness in the industry. Some would argue that they're toxic and they diminish the value of food and production, and others might argue that they increase durability, hardiness, reproductivity, and all of those other things. So I'm not quite certain, if we have a separate two days on GMOs, what report that will become part of. I just don't want them discussed in isolation, to be hanging out in limbo. I thought they would become part of the report on competitiveness, and therefore I would have thought they would have been heard before we looked at the draft report.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I know you weren't at the steering committee, Mr. Valeriote, but the discussion there—and members can correct me—was that we set these dates for the report. You could technically, Frank, take everything we discuss and in some way tie it into competitiveness, there's no doubt about that—
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Well, yes, I guess it's at the will of the committee. If the committee wants to report back on it, I'm sure with those few meetings it's going to be pretty brief, but the committee sets its own destiny.
Mr. Lemieux.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you, Chair.
First I wanted to thank you, Chair, for having this subcommittee report in front of us. Mr. Valeriote might not know, but the subcommittee in fact just makes recommendations to the main committee, so I actually appreciate the fact that we have the report in front of us, that we have the opportunity to discuss it and then to amend it or to pass it or not pass it, whatever we see fit. That might help Mr. Valeriote over there, who was asking about what can and can't be done.
You were explaining, Chair, that the steering committee decided this. I just wanted to let Mr. Valeriote know the steering committee only makes a recommendation to the main committee. If you feel that GMOs should be included as part of the report, you can do that as a main committee member, because the steering committee only puts together a recommended report that we review, amend, modify, vote on, accept/not accept; it's up to the main committee to decide. So I just wanted you to know that.
5:15 p.m.
An hon.. member
Can I respond to that?
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Perhaps another time.
The other thing I wanted to mention, Chair—
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
He is correct in that. When I said the steering committee, whatever, that was the direction of the steering committee, but it still has to be approved at the main committee.