Mr. Angus.
Evidence of meeting #3 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mandate.
Evidence of meeting #3 for Canadian Heritage in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mandate.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
I would fully support that. I don't know if we can do it within the space of an hour or whether we need to have another meeting. I'm not opposed to doing an extraordinary meeting on a Wednesday afternoon or something so we can do this, because we will be needing to get some direction from them, especially for the new members, if we're going to have terms of reference being discussed on CBC. We could hold a separate meeting on that. We could start with an hour and agree to--
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I would suggest today we had allowed half an hour to do four motions, one motion was withdrawn and it took us almost an hour and a half to do the other three motions.
5:05 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
This is the principle of the work expanding to occupy the time available.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Yes, I think.
I would suggest that at the next meeting we will have our witness, Mr. Sirman, here. We will ask him questions. I know the Canada Council was mentioned here today, and some various reports. Maybe we could expand a little wee bit more on the mandate of the Canada Council, and we might all be able to understand that. I would suggest that we do this and deal with Mr. Kotto's motion, and that will make a very good meeting, I think.
Yes, Mr. Abbott.
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Jim Abbott Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Mr. Bélanger had asked for a list of the vacant positions within the Canadian heritage portfolio and organizations. I have it here. There's a continuation of one line on the back for the French.
Taking a look at this, I was very interested: for example, for the Canada Council for the Arts, one director, one member; for the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the president is missing; for the CBC, one member is missing; and so on and so forth. So there are obviously some vacancies here.
The Conservative government is starting into a process for these kinds of appointments that we are attempting to expedite as quickly as possible. It was deeply regrettable that today a decision was made by the board responsible for the person who was going to be responsible for actually establishing how that process was to be undertaken. It was deeply regrettable that it didn't happen.
I believe there are two or three other appointments that have already been made in the process, and now we're going to have to circle back and find someone else to do it. The point is that where the practices of previous governments--of various political stripes, to be non-partisan--had, I'm sure, their own internal processes, it wasn't always clear how the vacant positions were going to be filled.
Because we're really totally focused on the entire issue of accountability, and we think the Canadian people are, we are now in the process, as expeditiously as possible, of establishing a process whereby people who are qualified--for the sake of their own qualifications, and not necessarily for the sake of the political party card that they have in their pocket.... We are totally focused on that, and we are going to make it happen as quickly as possible.
As I say, I just find it regrettable that things didn't work out. The person the Prime Minister had nominated for the position is probably the most qualified--not one of the most, but the most qualified--person to get the process started.
So there is going to be a bit of a delay.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you, Mr. Abbott.
I have come to the bottom of my orders of the day.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Mr. Chairman, I have a question.
Is there a time when we can hope to invite the CBC/Radio-Canada to appear before us in view of preparing ourselves for the review of the terms of reference of the mandate review?
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Jim Abbott Conservative Kootenay—Columbia, BC
Remember that the minister is going to be appearing on June 1. I wonder if the meeting following June 1 would be the best time. It would be a full meeting, and it would give the CBC an opportunity to do proper preparation.
I'm just wondering about jamming the CBC into an hour or less at the meeting before the minister comes.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
I'd rather have an hour than nothing. If we're going to have a fruitful and fulsome discussion with the minister, there are issues that we wish to be prepared for. One of them is the CBC. And if we can't have them at this committee, then some of us individually I suppose, will ask to meet with the management of the CBC.
Thank you.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
I was just going to suggest that at our next meeting we take 15 minutes just to look at our dwindling calendar and just block in. I think it's a suggestion we need to look at, but we don't have a lot of dates. I would prefer if we could just take a bit of time--I don't think we need to take an hour--just to say, “We have four dates left; we have three dates left; whatever. What is it that we want to do?”, and make sure we can then block that off.
I think we can get consensus.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
I think that's an excellent idea because of the fact that we do have a limited number of Tuesdays and Thursdays left. I think it's important for us to be focused. To spend two hours on motions, even though they're important.... I think we have to have a very focused schedule.
So even if prior to our next meeting you could send us a draft of what the schedule looks like from now until the session ends, it would be appreciated.