Evidence of meeting #13 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I was trying to think the same thing. We'll get back to you on that.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Okay. When we have that meeting, which I assume will probably be on Tuesday—
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
It will be on Tuesday. The location is a little up in the air. Is it here?
11:05 a.m.
A voice
Yes.
11:05 a.m.
Voices
No.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Oh, I'm a week early.
Okay, so it will be here on Tuesday at 11 o'clock for the steering committee.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
Yes, I'll be bringing it forward, whether it's a motion or just a.... I don't think we have to deal with it like that, formally in the steering committee, but I think that should be our first order of business. I agree with you on that.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Okay. Agreeing on it is not the whole point. The second piece of it was—
11:05 a.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes. My point really was, rather than wait until Tuesday to do what we already agreed today we're going to do, why don't we schedule that meeting?
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Certainly we had a conversation with the law clerk, knowing that he would be one of the witnesses coming. We know that when we had the Chief Electoral Officer here, we suggested we would have him back.
There's been some thought process on the planning, and invitations at least tentatively given, so that we can start right in.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK
I think what we don't know, David, and one of the reasons I'm suggesting it, is that let's assume for a moment that next Thursday would be the first meeting. I don't know whether it would take one meeting or two, quite frankly, because I'm not sure how many witnesses you or anyone else may suggest that we need to bring in.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I think there's just one on the list, isn't there, or am I incorrect?
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I have six on the list that has been submitted. The steering committee will try to look at scheduling those, but....
The other thing is that a name not on the list is Monsieur Bezan's. We don't know whether he wants to come or not, but normally on a motion of privilege in a person's name they are the first witness. We've already had a first witness.
I thought the steering committee might be able to clear some of that up.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes, fair enough.
Listen, our job is to try, and try I did. But I see the wisdom of the steering committee, and am persuaded.
Thank you.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Excellent.
Am I right that the potential witness list, the unfinished witness list, the thoughts on witnesses, have gone out to you now, and you've seen them?
David, as you said, whoever your member on the steering committee is, they'll have some thoughts on this.
If we can accomplish any other committee business today then, we have the nuts and bolts of the cost of the question of privilege related to this motion of privilege.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
Craig Scott NDP Toronto—Danforth, ON
Mr. Chair, I don't know whether or not this is privileged information, but with regard to Professor Dawood, did she get wind of the committee and apply, or did somebody know about her expertise in this, or...?
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
11:05 a.m.
A voice
Liberal.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
The Liberal Party submitted her name. They obviously know of certain expertise that she has.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
Craig Scott NDP Toronto—Danforth, ON
Okay. It's just that you had asked, and I didn't know that this was an area.
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Yes. As we said, and we were pretty clear before we left, this list could be added to if we felt we needed to.
I think the steering committee really needs to look at how long we need this thing to go on. The Speaker has handed this to us as a “How do I fix this when it happens again?” motion of privilege. It does include a couple of members, but it looks like those have been solved. This motion of privilege has now become as much administrative as it was a motion of privilege: what does the Speaker do when the Chief Electoral Officer does this?
We're back to the budget for the study on this motion of privilege. The clerk has put together potential costs for us to do this study, as we do for each of our studies.
Do I need someone to move that?