Government Operations Committee on March 10th, 2011

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

We're in public session now.

Madam Coady, would you move your motion?

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

I am not finished.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Please continue.

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

It won't take very long.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Please try to keep it brief.

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

I wanted to point out to the members of the committee that whenever we ask for a document to be translated, we always hear that it will delay the committee's proceedings. That is a damaging attitude. It will not necessarily take longer for the committee to do its work or for a document to come in just because we want it translated into French. I find that appalling.

Keep in mind that this document has been around since 2006. So it should have been made available in French a long time ago. I just wanted to make that clear, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Siobhan, your motion, please.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you very much.

You will recall that at our last meeting I moved a motion to request information for our study on advertising that we are to begin today. In response to a colleague, we had said we'd get back to this information again today. He wanted to talk further on this issue because he thought it should be more specific. There is going to be a friendly amendment to make it more specific. I think that will satisfy the concerns of the colleague who raised this issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Mr. Regan, your amendment.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chair, the simplest way to do this is to read the motion as it would be amended:

That, with regard to government expenditures on advertising for fiscal year 2010-2011, the Committee request the government, through the Privy Council Office, to provide it with the following information, by each of the following departments or organizations, namely Infrastructure Canada, Public Works and Government Services, Canadian Heritage, Human Resources and Skills Development, Finance, Citizenship and Immigration, Fisheries and Oceans, Transport, Health, Industry, Privy Council Office, Canada Revenue Agency, in electronic form, within 5 business days and in both official languages: (1) how has the money been allocated; (2) what government program or service was advertised; (3) in what medium (print, radio, television, other); (4) what amount was spent; (5) in what geographic area; and, in general, (6) what is the total amount spent on advertising by the government for the said the fiscal year.

Members have copies of this proposed amended version of the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Okay, the motion is in order.

Mr. Holder is first.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

I have a couple of things, if I may. This follows on our last commentary relative to the prior discussion.

First, just as a standard comment, could I suggest that, at a minimum, when we talk about five days—as we know, we have a weekend between now and the next five days—I don't want to overly presume, but do we mean business days? If so, can we make that part of our standard comments? There is obviously a difference with a weekend involved. That would be point number one.

I am mindful that much of this information is based on annual reporting from late spring, June, through September. I am not sure how much is available, so I will bring up the question again with regard to preparation, and that is as it relates to five days. Again, it's a popular mantra around here, and I understand it talks to the urgency, which I truly get, but I'm not sure if it speaks to the reality or the practicality.

There are two things. If we mean business days, can we say that, at least? Then, second, how practical and realistic, notwithstanding the urgency, is five days with the huge amount of information that is here? I am not even going to get into the cost, but in the event that it's all in French right now, which it may well be, and all I want to do is have the English translation as well—and I'm not even being clever on this--it just strikes me, is that fair and reasonable?

I defer to the committee's wisdom on this.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Madame Beaujolais.

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

Beaujolais is an excellent French wine.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Good idea.

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

I would like some clarification, Mr. Chair. With regard to point 5, I would just like to ask Ms. Coady what she means by “geographic area”, by province?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Madam Coady is next in line. You can respond directly.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

“By geographic area” means by province or region, if it's done by region, so we can understand exactly where they're spending the money.

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

You need to make it very clear that you are talking about a breakdown by province or by region, because that is not clear here.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Is there anything else you want to say?

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

We've been talking about doing this advertising study. Today we are actually starting it. It would be very helpful to have this information in a timely and quick manner. This motion was discussed at previous meetings. I would like to move forward as quickly as possible, because we only have a couple of days dedicated to this. If we drag it out too much longer we're going to get information after we've been through a number of our witnesses, and will therefore have to actually call them back again.

We are making this friendly amendment in the spirit of trying to address the concerns of colleagues. So I urge all of us to move on as quickly as possible. We have witnesses waiting.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Monsieur Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Back to what Mr. Holder and Ms. Bourgeois said earlier, the motion should indicate a turnaround time of five business days and not necessarily five calendar days. Five business days versus five calendar days makes a difference in terms of processing the request.

We are seeing that with the other document. The fact remains this motion is asking for a fair bit of information. Would it be possible to give them five business days to provide the documents in both languages? That is a fair question.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Monsieur Vincent.

[Robert Vincent, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to respond to Mr. Généreux and Mr. Holder. We are talking about five business days, and the House will be in recess for the next five days. So they will have nine days if you consider the business days and the five work days. That gives them plenty of time.

Furthermore, Mr. Chair, I hope that every department included its advertising expenditures in its budget envelope, because if every department did not, that would not be good. Every department is required to include every single one of its advertising expenditures. They are all required to include that spending in their total figures and budget envelope. So knowing how much they spent during the year should not be a problem for them. They have nine days to provide the information, when it should have already been taken into account. I don't think making it available in French should be a problem. Given what we have received so far, there should not be a problem with that.