Natural Resources Committee on Jan. 15th, 2008

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I can respond to that.

I think it's really important that we get the minister first—and we want to have Ms. Keen also—because the minister is going to raise some questions about Ms. Keen's conduct, I assume, and we want him to raise these points with us so we can ask Ms. Keen to respond to these questions. So it's really important. After all, the minister is accusing Ms. Keen of incompetence. So we want him to come here, answer our questions, and also tell us what his concerns are so we have the opportunity to ask Ms. Keen to clarify these points.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Alghabra, that's interesting. I read the letter you sent, and there was no mention of that as an issue we were to discuss at all. Of course, the committee can decide to expand the issue, but I'm somewhat surprised that wasn't in the letter.

Mr. St. Amand.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

As we sit here now, Mr. Chair, Mr. Anderson has confirmed that the minister is available tomorrow. So let us proceed—

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Sometime tomorrow.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

I understand Mr. Anderson to have said that the minister is available tomorrow.

We're not yet certain about Ms. Keen's availability. Logic dictates that we proceed tomorrow morning, ten o'clock, with the individual that we know is available being Minister Lunn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Now, we had Monsieur Proulx, and then Ms. Bell, followed by Madame DeBellefeuille.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I think that it is most important to begin by knowing the minister's position and hearing his explanations. We could then use those explanations, his concerns and his statements as a basis for our questions to Ms. Keen.

Although my colleagues across the table are hinting that the order is not important, I think it is important to start with the minister. He will set the tone for our meetings, and for the questions that we will be putting to the president afterwards.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Monsieur Proulx.

Ms. Bell.

[Catherine Bell, NDP, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

If it's going to be the pleasure of the committee to hear from the minister first—and I don't know if we're going to vote on that—seeing as the minister is available and we don't know about Ms. Keen, if the times were to be changed I would have no problem accommodating hearing from the minister in the afternoon. If he's still on the west coast, I know it takes quite some time to get here. But regardless, I think it would be best to hear from the minister first.

To answer Ms. DeBellefeuille's previous question about more witnesses, I actually have a motion that I'll be bringing up to hear from other witnesses, such as AECL and people from NRCan. So I would like to just note that for the time being, and just let you know, as a matter of process and timing, I suppose, that we can use the day wisely tomorrow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

I would assume, Ms. Bell, that when you're talking about other witnesses, you're talking about when our committees convene when we come back. Otherwise, to schedule--

[Catherine Bell, NDP, Vancouver Island North, BC]

That would depend on what we decide when I bring it up.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Madame DeBellefeuille.

[Claude DeBellefeuille, Bloc, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Like my colleagues, I feel that it is important for us as members of Parliament to meet and put questions first to the member of Parliament responsible for natural resources. That is the minister, of course. It seems logical to me to start with him. We want to hear his side and ask him questions.

Like Ms. Bell, I would be prepared to stay on Parliament Hill and hear from Ms. Keen on Thursday if the minister's availability is better in the afternoon than in the morning. All of us around the table agree that the matter is very important. We have all rearranged our schedules in order to shed light on it. If the minister is available in the afternoon only, I am sure that we would all be ready to schedule Ms. Keen on Thursday.

We should be able to come to an agreement quite easily, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Absolument. Merci.

Mr. Anderson.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I'm not sure that everyone had made plans to be here all week. They understood that we were going to be having a meeting, but I'm not sure everyone understood that there would be two or three of them.

I would just like to reiterate that we're interested in working with the opposition. I don't have the specifics of the minister's schedule for tomorrow. To me, it seems to make a lot more sense that he would follow and wrap up the discussion and the debate. We would hear from Ms. Keen first, and then the minister could be asked questions about her commentary. We'll talk to him and see what his schedule is and try to accommodate that for tomorrow.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Thank you, Mr. Anderson.

Mr. Alghabra.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Mr. Chair, just to remove any confusion, I'd like to make a minor amendment to my motion to say that first we hear from the minister and then we hear from the commissioner. Thus, when we vote on it, we'll be very clear about the order of the witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Alghabra, you, of course, can't amend your own motion, so that's out of order.

Mr. Trost.

[Bradley Trost, Conservative, Saskatoon—Humboldt, SK]

I just want to make a point. For some of the members who are from Ontario and Quebec, you guys can just zip.... If you're planning on dragging this thing out, be cognizant of some of the members. Ms. Bell is from the west coast. I'm from Saskatchewan. If we're going to start doing this, I'd appreciate the courtesy of getting it cleared up. Some of us can't just zip back from our constituencies for an evening meeting or drive to areas in and around Ottawa.

For members from western Canada--and I'm sure from Atlantic Canada as well--coming back in the middle of January is very serious. It takes away a lot of our work with our constituents.

I'd ask my colleagues to try to be respectful. I understand we have business here, and I want to pay full attention to it, but we need to bring that into the equation as well.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

It certainly is important. I have a flight back scheduled for tomorrow night. The committee isn't going to change its schedule based on that, but there are probably a lot of members who have flights scheduled. So let's get some certainty to this.

Is there any more discussion? Are we ready for the vote on the motion?

Mr. St. Amand.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

I would like to slightly amend the motion that is before us, Mr. Chair, so that there's no confusion.

The motion clearly indicates that first the minister and then the president of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission will be questioned by the committee. However, in case there's any measure of confusion whatsoever, I want to make it clear for all of us that we're moving that the minister appear first, that he be questioned, and that after the minister has appeared, then Ms. Linda Keen appear to be questioned.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

What exactly, then, is your amendment?

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

It is that the Minister of Natural Resources be our first witness tomorrow and that Ms. Linda Keen follow the minister.

[The Chair, Conservative, Leon Benoit]

Mr. Anderson, on the amendment.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I would like to further amend it and suggest that if the opposition is going to insist on this, the minister have a half an hour at the end of the meeting to respond to any comments Ms. Keen may have made.