Finance Committee on March 14th, 2022

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Okay. Thank you.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I have a follow-up question, Mr. Chair, if I may. One of the things I'm curious to know— with full sympathy to our analysts—is whether it is possible to do some consideration of the main body of the report, or will that not be written until they know the recommendations? I know that sometimes in committee work, a fair bit of the report body must be reviewed in advance of the recommendations being settled upon. I've done other bits of committee work in which we've done the recommendations first, but I'm wondering if there would be material for us to review on Thursday that could be circulated on Wednesday, I guess, so that we don't miss an opportunity to use 30 minutes or so to at least begin some work on that report without having settled on our recommendations yet.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Blaikie.

I do have MP Dzerowicz and MP Albas on the floor, in that order. Then maybe we'll go to the analysts after, and they may have some suggestions.

MP Dzerowicz.

[Julie Dzerowicz, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm sure this was discussed and I'm just forgetting. Why is there a rush? Why is it that we're rushing to get these recommendations done by the end of day Thursday or Friday? Why wouldn't we say that we could have them on Monday so we could have careful and thoughtful consideration of the testimony? I'm sure there's probably some deadline that I'm forgetting. I understand that around the pre-budget stuff, timelines are super critical.

I'm not quite understanding what the deadline is specifically on this, but it might be that I'm just forgetting something, so I'd be grateful if someone could clarify that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Dzerowicz.

On the calendar we do have “adopt final report” for this study on the Emergencies Act on the 24th and then we were to table it on the 28th.

Clerk, is that what you were going to say? Okay.

That is the reason, MP Dzerowicz.

MP Albas.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Thank you.

I think it was all regarding the Emergencies Act and the order being on a time-limited 30-day basis. I always believe we should try to get as much work done as we can within a reasonable time frame. To make things a little bit easier, Mr. Chair, maybe on Thursday we could give some drafting instructions to the analysts. I think it's always good for individual parties to bring recommendations, but, quite honestly, it is very helpful to have the analysts put forward a report in draft form with some recommendations they feel were reasonable and that came from testimony, and if there are some gaps, individual parties can bring forward some recommendations, but those would be in camera and we can go through and fight like cats and dogs for a good final report, Mr. Chair.

As long as we're not under a House order to have it done by March 28, I would say let's not go too quickly, and let's also bear in mind that this committee, when I sat on it before, very rarely had any extra time because something always seemed to be coming down the pike. Maybe we could give some instructions to the analysts on Thursday and give them a week or two to come back with a report and then we can add anything else we think of during the process that follows.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Albas.

MP Ste-Marie, would you like to make your comments or ask questions before we go to the analysts and then ask them and the clerk about the whole scheduling now and if this needs to change?

[Gabriel Ste-Marie, Bloc, Joliette, QC]

I just want to say that I agree with what our colleague, Mr. Albas, just said. Since we didn't have the time that we wanted to carry out all our work, we should take a few more weeks to do things properly. I have no problem with postponing the final adoption of the report to ensure a better report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, Mr. Ste‑Marie.

Now I will go to the clerk and analysts in looking at the schedule.

As I said, we had set this up for the adoption of the final report on the 24th and then tabling of it on the 28th, but I'm looking to members. It looks like members are open to a rescheduling of that and looking at some kind of a draft report coming from the analysts. That would be to look at after the three witnesses on the Thursday.

I'll go to the analysts now for thoughts.

[Brett Capwell]

Sure. There are a few points there.

The initial deadline for the tabling of this report came from, I believe, Mr. Poilievre's motion to undertake this study. That was the initial starting point to work from. Nothing else other than that holds the committee to tabling on that date, so it's open to change.

There is currently no report to consider on Thursday for this, as we have been working around the clock on preparing the pre-budget consultation report, as it is effectively the largest report that this committee puts out.

Yes, we would certainly welcome drafting instructions on Thursday to be able to put something together for you to consider at a later point.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

I just have a question, Chair.

If that's the case, if we can offer some drafting instructions in camera on Thursday, in that case we wouldn't need to have recommendations by Friday, I would assume. It's pick your poison—one or the other.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Right now, what's on the table is that we would have the three witnesses and then we would look at some drafting instructions in the second half of that meeting. Then we would have another meeting, which we would have to schedule, and members are open to moving the adopting of the final report and the tabling of the report to a later date.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Chair, again, I'm sorry to interrupt. I would concur with that.

I also think, though, that at some point you should talk to the other vice-chairs to arrange a subcommittee meeting, just so that we will have an idea of scheduling moving forward—but you seem to have put it all together nicely.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Okay. We are set for Thursday. I will reach out to the vice-chairs and to our subcommittee to look at the rescheduling of those other meetings that will be necessary.

All right.

Members, that was a great session. Thank you very much.

Shall we adjourn? That's good? Thank you.