Evidence of meeting #12 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was list.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you very much.
My last comment was that the Thursday meeting that you have arranged, Mr. Kingsley, is during the time of the committee meeting, so it's going to be very hard for the committee to have two meetings at one place. Many of us would like to be duplicated so we could be in two places at once, but we can't.
I would ask you to consider moving the meeting on Thursday to another time. You can get back to us on that.
12:40 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Obviously I'll do that, sir. This committee takes precedence.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you very much.
I would like to deal with Mr. Godin's question earlier in the meeting.
Are there any other comments or questions?
Mr. Simard had asked me for some time. Would there be a disagreement to allow Mr. Simard and Mr. Guimond one more comment?
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
I was not involved in the initial discussion which led to the decision to hold discussions in camera. I don't know if we should...
I feel that if a person is not at a meeting, that person has forfeited the right to speak, and this is my case. However, why should we discuss these matters in camera? That could not be done... Until now, our discussions have not been very...
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
12:45 p.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
I know that, but I'm talking about future meetings during which we will complete the study of the document. In our future meetings, we could take out the in camera procedure and allow the public to attend. I do not see why future meetings should be held in camera. Is the committee ready to reconsider this decision?
I'm talking about future meetings.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
If the committee wants to look for that, wants to make a decision on that, I'm happy to deal with that right now.
I have some other issues I want to deal with before we finish this meeting.
Mr. Simard, did you want to make a brief comment on this?
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Raymond Simard Liberal Saint Boniface, MB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I didn't quite get my last comment in last time, and it was with regard to the Trinity--Spadina riding, with 10,000 people showing up on that particular day.
It seems to me, Mr. Kingsley, if I were the returning officer I would have an audit of that riding. If that's the highest in Canada, I would take the highest in Canada and find out if it was actually fraud that was being committed, or if it was a matter of demographics. And for us, I think it would be comforting for us to know as a committee whether it was one or the other.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Mr. Chairman, if I may respond very rapidly, it is an excellent idea. Consider it done, and I will table the report here as soon as I have it.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Consider it done. As soon as I have it, I'll table the report here.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
No, we do not.
The witnesses are welcome to stay, or they are dismissed.
Thank you so very much for your illuminating answers and your quick response to the committee meeting. I appreciate your being here.
12:45 p.m.
Chief Electoral Officer, Office of the Chief Electoral Officer
Do not hesitate to call on us. We're 15 minutes away.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Now I would like to go to Mr. Godin's question.
At last Thursday's meeting, Mr. Godin, the committee was asked about this. I remember that the committee agreed to hold additional meetings because of how much information we had to digest and the potential for getting a report done by the end of the session. The committee agreed. As a result, I have set up two additional meetings this week. Because of the availability of this room, the first meeting is tonight. The second meeting is Wednesday, and that's with the Privacy Commissioner. I don't expect that we will be with the Privacy Commissioner more than 25 to 45 minutes, at the very most. That meeting will deal with the sharing of lists and where we get our information.
So that's why we have two additional meetings this week. The committee agreed to allow me to do that.
A comment from Mr. Godin, and then Monsieur Guimond.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Yes, we allowed the committee to do that, but we had not talked about the night or the hours. It came like a brick. I mean, we already have a schedule.
12:45 p.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I think I'm not the only one, and I would like to hear from the others. I mean, a decision about time is normally decided as a group.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I'm happy to do that. The problem is the availability of this room. We're coming down to the last 10 to 14 days on the Hill, and this room is only available at certain times. We did everything we could to get those times opened up, but we could not. This room is only available at those times.
I regret not bringing it to the committee, but it probably wouldn't have done much anyway. These are the only times the room is available.
There will be a continuation of this general discussion tonight. I would certainly encourage members to be here, especially given the information.
