Agriculture Committee on Dec. 9th, 2010

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'm telling you what's in the letter that's right in front of you, that was put in front of all members, because that was not expressed to the committee.

The second thing is that if they did come in front of the committee and then couldn't answer any questions, you'd be the first one onto them about the fact that they should have let the committee know this before they wasted the committee's time by coming in front of the committee and using up precious witness time. I think their approach is reasonable.

The committee, when they first invite a department, don't know what's going on in the department. Or they don't know the status of a particular review: how could they know? And now the dialogue has started. They didn't say that they would not come; they just said that now is not the best time to come. That's a reasonable approach. They didn't say they were never going to come. They said they will come but it's better that they come after the review is done. To me, that makes sense.

There is no sense having witnesses come, Chair, if they can't answer any questions about the very subject that we want to talk about. That makes no sense at all. They'd be wasting the time of this committee and they'd be bumping other witnesses, and to what end? It is better that it's handled this way: that we have invited them not knowing where they were in their process. They have responded by telling us where they are in their process and saying that they'd come at a time that's opportune for them to be able to answer questions.

That is reasonable, and they've stated their willingness to come.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

As requested by you, I did talk to the minister on this. What he said was.... He didn't make a commitment. He said that basically the minute the review is done, they will come, and he said that they can send staff, but they can't answer anything at this point. That's where it came from. Whether we like it or not, that was it. But he has made that commitment. I hadn't even seen this letter until now. I knew it was coming; they said it would be here for this morning. It's unfortunate, but that's the reality of it.

I think we should move into—

I'm sorry. I didn't see you there, André. Go ahead.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

First of all, I wanted to say that Pierre talked about a letter that we had right in front of us, but I do not have it, nor does France.

Secondly, only members and ministers can—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I'm sorry, André.

[An hon. member]

We're not getting any translation.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

André, would you try it again?

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I was saying that Pierre talked about a letter that is right in front of us, but I do not have it, nor does France.

Secondly, I just wanted to remind the committee that only ministers and members of Parliament can refuse to appear before a committee.

They say that they will perhaps appear at some point, but we should be quite firm with public servants, because if I remember correctly, this is not the first time that the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food has asked officials to appear and that they have wanted to come when it suited them. But there are some constraints with the agenda.

I don't think that we are being overly demanding by asking them to appear on a specific day when we give them reasonable notice. I understand that it may be difficult for them to appear at 8:45 a.m. if we write them the day before at 5:00 p.m. In that case, I can understand the difficulty, but when reasonable notice is given, I don't understand their inability to find someone at the department who can talk about the railway issues.

Larry, I don't think you were here earlier, but the suggestion was made to inform them of our dissatisfaction and to find a time slot when they can appear.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I can certainly parlay that in a letter, if you so wish. I just want to clarify that I don't know who said this went out to all members; I didn't. And it didn't go out to all members, as far as I know.

Isn't that right?

It just arrived this morning, André.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Okay, Chair. The first thing is that I didn't say that it went out to all the members. I said it was placed in front of all members, meaning that the clerk had just placed it in front of members.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Chloé O'Shaughnessy]

I have just received it, so I haven't.... I just have my copy here.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Oh, where did I get my copy from? I don't know where that came from, then....

Well, then, Chair, the second point is that they haven't refused to come. I think that's an important point. They're not refusing to come. This happens in committee when we invite witnesses, be they government witnesses or witnesses from industry. Even witnesses from industry can't always come when the committee invites them. We don't turn it into a showdown; we simply arrange another date. That's all that's happening here.

Chair, to give my colleagues the information that's contained in the letter, I think it's worth reading it into the record. So I would ask that either you or the clerk read this letter into the record. It will be translated for my colleagues from the Bloc and then they will better understand what it is that's contained in the letter. Right now they don't have a copy of it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I would just suggest that if everybody had a copy of it, I wouldn't have to read it, and we could get on to our witnesses.

Is that okay?

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Chair, I find that this is really not being done properly. When I started chairing this meeting, there was no letter in front of me. There's no translation of this letter. This letter is....

As far as I'm concerned, they're not here, and they should be here. This committee wanted them to be here. We gave them advance notice. This letter is all bullshit, and I think we should move on and we should send a letter to the minister stating our displeasure. Now, whether you want to distribute that letter and have it translated...fill your boots.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I think it has already been suggested that I write a letter and I will.

Can we move on?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

No, Chair. This letter is addressed to the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Yes, it is.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

It's addressed to you; it's to be shared with the committee. So I'm going to read it into the record, because when they're expressing their outrage, they don't know what they're expressing their outrage about. They're just expressing it about a letter whose content they have no idea about. It doesn't make any sense, so—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay. Well, I think what we're going to do, Mr. Lemieux, is make sure that everybody has a copy. I don't think it needs to be read in and we're going to move on—

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

No, I want to read it in, because I want my committee members to understand what's in the letter, and then you might not have to write the minister—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Would having a copy not do the same thing, Mr. Lemieux?

[An hon. member]

Put it in now.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Put it in now. Besides—

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair--

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Oh my goodness--

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

--we asked them here.