Official Languages Committee on Oct. 19th, 2006

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

If I understand correctly, on November 6, we will be travelling East, and the trip West will be on—

[The Clerk]

It will be from December 4 to 8.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

It will be from December 4 to 8.

Can we discuss the possibility of inviting other witnesses to appear?

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

It's already—

[The Clerk]

I have invited local witnesses to appear, at least until November 2^nd, because if the committee travels you will be able to hear witnesses in those locations. Perhaps when you return, if there are points that you have not had time to develop sufficiently, we could call witnesses on immigration and health, since both are being examined jointly.

That is the situation as it now stands. If you would like to provide me with names... I know that I have one, and we can hear that person in Moncton.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Mr. Godin was first.

[The Clerk]

Why are the bells ringing?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

It is either a quorum call or a vote.

We have to be careful. We are not travelling to discuss health but rather to meet with a number of organizations. We must be careful not to fall into a trap. Here, in Ottawa, our witnesses are asked to deal only with health-related issues, and others are not invited. When we travel, we must not limit our discussions only to health care.

[The Clerk]

We are examining health and immigration. Would you like to deal with something else? For the time being, the committee is scheduled to spend only one day in each city.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

That was the reason for my comment. The committee is not travelling to explore health-related issues. If they want to discuss health, then witnesses should be invited to appear before the committee here.

We are travelling to some locations to see how our program money is spent and what it is accomplishing.

If we are only in Moncton for one hour, we should not spend our time talking about health care without going into the reason why we are there in the first place.

[Le président, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

I would like to clarify something. There is a list—

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré, Committee Researcher]

I believe there is a slight misunderstanding. Let's be clear about something. The starting point, the main reason for this trip revolves around the action plan. The action plan deals first with education, then, with health. It also includes immigration. So there are different aspects, including the public service, but it won't be necessary to deal with that when we travel. That is the action plan.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I agree on that.

We have decided that health will be a priority. So, when we are in Moncton, I don't think we should spend all of our time discussing health, since we have a forum for that here, in Ottawa, where witnesses may be called to appear.

It is hard to get very much done in one hour. In fact, we have just spent two hours discussing only health care.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Do you have any comments on that, Ms. Boucher?

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I agree with Mr. Godin. We mentioned that at the outset: health care is discussed here. Of course, we can meet with people from outside Ottawa.

We have just spent two hours discussing health matters. I think that it is important for people from outside Ottawa to meet with us here, since everyone is already here. However, when we travel, we can only meet with one or two people. Nevertheless, we should not spend the entire week discussing health care.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

The clerk has taken note of your comments. Is that okay with you?

[A voice]

I agree with you, Mr. Godin.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

You always agree with him!

I will be appearing before the Liaison Committee at 1:00 o'clock this afternoon to request leave for the committee to travel. I hope it will work, because all of the whips are aware of it and, so far, they seem to be in favour of our plans.

Ms. Barbot.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

Could we have a copy of the action plan? It all seems rather confusing. It would be helpful if we had a list of the people whom we have already met as well as the subjects that were discussed, and who we will be meeting with. That would help us to get a handle on things.

It feels to me like we are skipping from one subject to another, and we are losing track. I'm sure our researcher knows what is going on, but I would like to see it in writing.

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré]

You mean a work plan.

I can draft something, but it may not be accurate because once a week, and sometimes more often, we have to update the issues and priorities.

There already seems to be a misunderstanding. I thought that members would take this opportunity to look at the action plan, but that their priority would also revolve around health and immigration, while they were at it. But that is not the case. So we will have to rework the entire plan. All is not lost, however, because we will meet with some people here instead of at those locations.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

That is why it is important for us to have a plan to which we can refer. Otherwise, people will just keep tinkering with it. A plan would help us to concentrate on what has already been established.

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré]

Very well. I will prepare a plan. I have no problem with that, since I have a plan already. I am well prepared because I suspect that you will want to draft a report. So I have a plan that I would be happy to provide you with, if you so wish.

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

And we should commit to following this plan. I understand that, from time to time, there may be a priority, but we must not constantly stray from our objective, otherwise we will feel that we have wasted our time. That is how I see it, anyway. There you have it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

The researcher has taken note of your comments. Anyone else?

Ms. Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Do we know who will be travelling?