Finance Committee on Feb. 26th, 2015

[Colin Hansen]

I think that Canada has an opportunity to be an energy supplier to Asia, and specifically China. The relationships that are being built as a result, both by the Prime Minister and by the private sector, will help in that regard. But that is a market. We need to find new markets for Canadian energy, and this will help facilitate that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you very much.

Colleagues, we do have a couple of motions, so I'm going to thank all of our witnesses for being here. Our witness in London had to go early, but thank you so much for being with us here in Ottawa.

I'm going to suspend for a couple of minutes, colleagues. We can say goodbye to our guests, and then move to motions after that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, colleagues—

Mr. Saxton.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I move that we go in camera at this stage to discuss committee business.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

There's a motion to go in camera. There's no debate on an in camera motion, so we will go to the vote.

(Motion agreed to)

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We're back and we're in public.

We're dealing with Mr. Cullen's motion.

Mr. Saxton.

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

I would suggest that we go straight to a vote on this matter.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, let's go to a vote on Mr. Cullen's motion.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

That's carried unanimously. Thank you.

Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Just to clarify, that will be when we return from the break—Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday meetings, then.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

My recommendation is that we have a subcommittee to talk about the number of days for this motion, for the motion by Mr. Saxton, for the main estimates, and for any other issues.

Is that agreeable?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Mr. Chair, can you repeat what you just said?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

It was that we have a subcommittee to discuss the number of days for each study. Is that okay?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

That's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Is that agreeable?

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Is that when we get back then, from the break week? Is the subcommittee going to meet before the break week?

[An hon. member]

We could meet this week....

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

Chair, I think we had an agreement amongst all sides on the dates for Mr. Cullen's motion, so why don't we just deal with it and then we have a plan for when we get back?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Which dates...?

[Andrew Saxton, Conservative, North Vancouver, BC]

We're talking about the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of when we return, which are March 10, 11, and 12.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

So March 10, 11, and 12, is there agreement to deal with it on those days?

Mr. Cullen.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Sorry, Chair, the recommendation is to do two three-hour meetings on the Tuesday and the Thursday, and only a two-hour meeting on the Wednesday.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

So we have a three-hour meeting on the 10th, a two-hour meeting on the 11th, and a three-hour meeting on the 12th.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Yes. There are two sets of panels. We'd have to set a date for when committee members can put forward witnesses, which would have to be, obviously, quite soon, as in today.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I will get our analysts working on witnesses, but if we could have your witnesses in today, that would be very helpful, perhaps one on energy and one on manufacturing. Does that make sense?

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

There's somewhat of a natural split. One of the suggestions we had was around the impact on energy companies. The second was the impact on manufacturing broadly, and the third was the idea of some kind of private sector economists taking a look at the national picture in a more broad sense. But we're open to conversation.