Evidence of meeting #39 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 study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
11:40 a.m.
Committee Researcher
Yes, I'm sorry. It says, “Bidders MUST demonstrate their ability to launch the public consultations by March 9, 2007”.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Jay Hill Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
That's, what, three weeks from now? Maybe we're not aware of how far along that tendering process is. Anyway, we had agreed to this process, so I find it strange if we start to question it, because we ourselves, in a previous Parliament, drafted that report and sort of agreed to this two-track process. That's the intent I think of the motion, to just have the parliamentary half of that, and they're not supposed to be in conflict; they're supposed to be complementary. That was how we ourselves had envisioned it.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Thank you.
Colleagues, there are lots of conversations going on.
Madame Robillard, please.
11:40 a.m.
Liberal
Lucienne Robillard Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
I would simply like to ask the mover of the motion, Joe Preston, what interest would the committee have in beginning this work before receiving the citizen consultation report.
I know that this report will come in two months, that is, in May or early June, but would it not be preferable for us to receive this report before our committee starts examining the issue?
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
We already have the past report of this committee that created the citizen engagement process, so they're parallel. As Mr. Hill just alluded to, it's not a political event, the citizen engagement process. We might as well be doing our work at the same time as the other so that they'll sometime meet, instead of waiting for the other to be completed. That's the intent.
11:40 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
If you have comments, please direct them to the chair.
Madame Picard.
11:40 a.m.
Bloc
Pauline Picard Bloc Drummond, QC
I would need some clarifications, Mr. Chairman. Do we already have the report submitted by the citizens who have been consulted?
11:40 a.m.
An hon. member
No.
11:40 a.m.
An hon. member
We will have it at the end of May.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Correct.
From the chair's perspective, I'm looking at our schedule and when this type of a study would begin. It might not even begin until May. So maybe we're premature on deciding whether the timing is right or not. I'm wondering if we could just clarify that the motion really is to begin a study at some point. My next question will be, when can we do that, but I think we're just going to get it on the agenda. Depending on what comes along, we may not be able to study this until May.
Are there any other comments?
Mr. Hill.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Jay Hill Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
In respect of some of the comments that have been made, what we're seeing here is that there is I think general agreement to proceed, but I think the process would be that we would first meet and consider the report that the previous committee and the previous Parliament already produced on this issue and whether there is further study needed in certain areas where we feel we want to expand upon the testimony we had from witnesses we heard from during that study. In light of further consideration, maybe we would want to draw upon additional expert testimony. Maybe we would state, after having a look at that and having a good fulsome discussion amongst ourselves here, that indeed we were prepared to wait until we got the input from the citizen engagement process, but that we at least have one meeting to consider that report from the last Parliament and then decide on a way forward.
That would be my suggestion. I think that's what I'm hearing from other colleagues, that nobody wants to reinvent the wheel here, or start from scratch, as Madame Picard said. So that would be the obvious starting point, I would think.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
The consultants will write their report and I believe that we should wait for it. Thereafter, the committee will study the report and then we will do what will have to be done. It would be premature to do anything now.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Karen Redman Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Thank you.
Along the same lines, this committee has a steering committee. I don't sit on the steering committee and I didn't hear this raised, so I guess it's what I'm grappling with.
I would not say this is ill will. It's more a matter of timing. This identifies the what and the how, but it doesn't do it very clearly.
I would make a friendly suggestion that rather than voting on this so that it's not misinterpreted in any way, if we hold this in abeyance, we can get the researcher to either draw it to our attention or supply some of the past work this committee has done and review it. At a future steering committee meeting, they could talk about the appropriate timing.
At this juncture, because the process is launched and we're almost playing catch-up with it, I would be more than willing to wait to hear about this other process and the product of that before we decide on going ahead with what we're going to do.
Because it hasn't come forward at any of the steering committee meetings, to my knowledge, I was surprised to see it here today. I guess that's why I'm grappling with exactly what it means.
It hadn't been a topic of conversation, so that would be my suggestion for moving forward.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I would suggest that we wait and get the researchers to give us the background on it. We can wait until we at least get the preliminary of the draft report in May, and then we can decide what we want to do with it.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
All right. I'm not sure I have a consensus yet.
But on what I am hearing at this point, it seems we want to wait for the citizens' report in May. We want to find the law reform review report that Mr. Owens brought up earlier. The committee will study it but not necessarily right now.
Is that what I'm hearing?
Okay. That is what I'm hearing. Mr. Preston is shaking his head no.
11:45 a.m.
Conservative
Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
I see no reason to wait. I see having parallel processes so that we all get there at the same time.
Mr. Chair, you already mentioned that this committee has other work to do. This isn't imminent tomorrow, if we start with it. But I have no reason to say, why can't this committee take this on?