Government Operations Committee on Nov. 19th, 2009

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I'm going to give an opportunity to my colleague who hasn't had a chance to speak, and if he has some time remaining, I'll follow up with my question.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. Mr. Albrecht, then.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'm not a regular member of this committee but I have been impressed with the clarity of the report that our witnesses have brought us.

I think there is one point that may have been missed, and I'm not going to ask a question as much as make a comment.

In the second section, it talks about the $3.9 million, and repeatedly throughout the presentation it talks about the fact that this is a two-year plan, a temporary plan, and at the end of the two years, much of this will be wound down again. I think that point may have been missed.

The second thing I'd like to say is that when you consider the billions of dollars that were included in the economic action plan—and this is in addition to normal budgeting—and you consider the short timeline in which all staff have had to implement these projects, quite frankly, I think we should be fairly proud of the fact that there's a very small amount of money being utilized to implement this very aggressive action plan that will go a long way in terms of addressing much of the economic challenge our country is facing.

So I want to go on the record as saying that I hope our staff aren't being overburdened by the kind of work we're expecting them to do. I want to give them a hearty vote of thanks for their work at all levels, the PCO and on down.

Thanks, Mr. Chair. I'll share the rest of my time.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I echo the sentiments of my colleague.

I have one final question. I'm curious. As many of the departments are undertaking the expenditure review brought forward by Treasury Board, is PCO one of the groups that will be looking for that 5% in savings? If you have done it or will be doing it, if you guys are up for that in the future, what's the timeframe?

[Marilyn MacPherson]

I'm not sure, because I think it's actually a decision made by cabinet—

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

Right.

[Marilyn MacPherson]

—but with the way the cycles are going, I would expect that we'll be launching into it next year for results in 2012-13. That's what we think.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I was just trying to recall whether you had or had not.

[Marilyn MacPherson]

No, we haven't.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I appreciate that. Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Holder.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Do I have time for one quick question?

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Mr. Holder, you know my affection for you, but we do have a member who has to go to the House and this portion of the meeting was supposed to go until 5:15 so we could do committee business. I gave up a bit of my time, actually, in the hopes that we could tidy up.

So I don't mean to—

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I'm not taking it that way.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

How are Mr. Holder's feelings?

[An hon. member]

I don't know.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

At that, I would like to thank our witnesses very much for their testimony today. Thank you for taking the time to be with us and for sharing your thoughts. It's much appreciated.

We have a little bit of committee business to deal with, so we'll allow a minute or two and then we'll proceed.

Sometimes I know there's a discussion about whether committee business is done in camera or in public. I generally prefer that all these things be conducted in public. That way, it's a matter of public record, and I don't think there's anything to hide. That's the way I've usually done my committee business.

In terms of the motions we have before us, I'd like to discuss the various options. I'm just going to lay out how this can work. First, there is the motion from the member from Calgary West, and then there is the motion from Ms. Martha Hall Findlay—Mrs. or Ms.?

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

Definitely not “Mrs.” “Martha” works.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Fair enough. I'll address this so everyone understands how the process works.

If there is consensus in the committee, then what could happen is that the motion moved by the member for Calgary West could be moved by another member. However, if there is not consensus on that, then we have a difficulty, because the member for Calgary West is serving as your vice-chair.

What would normally happen is that the vice-chair would step aside to allow the second vice-chair to step into that position. In this case, that would be Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin is not present today, and we have Ms. Chow in his place. Then another option could be, for example, that the chair goes ahead and says he gives notice to the clerk that he, as vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, appoints--fill in a name--as acting chair while the motion moved by the member of Parliament for Calgary West is dealt with, signed by the member for Calgary West. That's one way we could deal with it.

You can see it's complicated. Of course, if you wanted to.... I'm just laying out the options for the members in terms of the complexity of the situation. Bear with me, please, Madame Bourgeois, as I describe it all.

Then we also have the motion moved by Ms. Martha Hall Findlay. I think in the interest of time, because I don't want to go past 5:30, what I will do, if the committee is all right with that, is allow my motion to be tabled to the next meeting, because it's complicated in terms of how we deal with it, and move forward with Ms. Martha Hall Findlay's if she so wishes to move it.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

We could move them both, I think, to the next meeting.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

If you want to do that, we can do that.

[Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal, Willowdale, ON]

La prochaine.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

At that point you [inaudible] your seat.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

You would take your seat, then, at the next meeting.