Evidence of meeting #18 for Natural Resources in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was carbon.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
The clerk will invite the minister to come on the supplementary estimates before--
12:50 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
Mr. Chairman, you did ask if there was unanimous agreement to adopt this motion? Is that the case? Is it unanimous?
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
I would like to tell you that in other committees, if the Minister's schedule is too full, it does happen that he or she delegate a deputy minister or another high ranking official to answer members' questions. I would however prefer that it be the Minister, because he is the one who is accountable for the budget.
But rather than having no one here, he could delegate someone from his department who would be capable of answering our questions.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
We'll certainly take the invitation to the minister. I'm not going to make any commitment that he will come, and I certainly can't make any commitment that we're going to bring departmental officials back. We've had them here a number of times.
I think we've made a further commitment that he will be here for the main estimates, as will the officials.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Okay, thanks very much, Mr. Anderson.
I think we will certainly pursue that in trying to accommodate what the motion has indicated. It's very short notice in terms of scheduling, but hopefully the minister can accommodate us. We shall see.
The other issue is that if the minister can come before March 14, what will we do with the witnesses who are scheduled, as we have the meeting fully booked up?
Madame DeBellefeuille.
12:55 p.m.
Bloc
Claude DeBellefeuille Bloc Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC
I know that all Committee members are passionate about forestry. I would propose, if the Minister is available, that we add one hour to one meeting of the Committee in order to hear the Minister and question him on the estimates, so as to not lose an hour in our study on forestry. I believe that that would be a solution that could suit all members of the Committee.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Okay. We shall see what we can do. There is unanimous agreement.
Certainly for this committee, I think that dealing with the supplementary estimates and the main estimates is very important. As a former chair of the government operations and estimates committee, I certainly encourage that.
Is there any other business?
Mr. Harris.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
Dick Harris Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I noticed that someone on the Liberal side was missed and didn't have chance to ask a question. Also, we had a member that was missed. Is it because we didn't get started quickly enough? In other words, had we started the presentations and questions right at the very beginning, there would have been time for Mr. Alghabra.
You didn't have a question, did you?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I think what happened was that we started 10 minutes late, and the presentations were also a little bit longer than usual.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
The presentations have been a little longer. I don't remember this, but the clerk has informed me that in the motion we passed we had agreed to give all witnesses 10 minutes. Normally when we have that many witnesses, we shorten it down to seven minutes or even five. But we had agreed to leave it at 10. The presentations have been excellent, I have to say. So that's the reason.
When we have teleconferencing, it's almost impossible to start on time when there's a committee in the room ahead of us—and of course we had to do the motion. So that's the answer.
Thank you very much, everyone.
The meeting is adjourned.