Public Accounts Committee on June 20th, 2007

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Well, no, that's not even an amendment. The motion was passed the other day. This is just to reschedule the meeting. We're not going to get into that.

The motion is that the meeting scheduled for tomorrow at nine o'clock be rescheduled to sometime this summer, at the call of the chair.

All in favour of that--

[Brian Fitzpatrick, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Can I make a comment on this thing too?

Along the line of Mr. Williams--and I'm more objective on this because I didn't vote on the motion the other day—when we as a committee decide that we want a meeting on short notice and we're going to tell all these people to show up, as if we're the centre of the universe and it's going to all happen, then I don't think that's a rational or reasonable position. Part of the difficulty we've gotten ourselves into with this scheduled meeting tomorrow is that there wasn't much rational reason behind this whole thing. You cannot organize meetings on short notice and expect everybody to drop everything they're doing to be here. It's like we think we are so important and their work is so absolutely not important that they should drop everything just because we think they should be here.

Let's use some reason. You wouldn't like it if the shoe were on the other foot. Next time around, think about these things before you jump ahead like this.

[An hon. member]

On a point of order, Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Order, order.

Mr. Laforest, please.

[Jean-Yves Laforest, Bloc, Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC]

Mr. Chairman, the members of this committee—including the steering committee—have been waiting for some time now to hear these witnesses. We have had a number of meetings, and on more than one occasion we have discussed how we will go about wrapping up our work on the RCMP. We had planned to meet with Mr. Brown so that the committee could complete its work.

In view of Mr. Williams' concerns, I would suggest that, instead of meeting in July or August, we wait until after Labour Day, before the House reconvenes. And if we are going to take the trouble to meet, then instead of having only one two-hour session, we could have two meetings during the same day, and hear witnesses at one of them. We had planned for two meetings, in order to avoid having Ms. McLellan appear at the same time as Mr. Stockwell Day.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Mr. Laforest, you've raised a point here, but the scheduling is an issue. I've raised that before.

I'm going to entertain a 30-second intervention from Mr. Wrzesnewskyj and a 30-second intervention from Mr. Christopherson. Then I'll put the question.

Mr. Wrzesnewskyj.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I just want to clarify for Mr. Fitzpatrick that the motion that passed on Monday was a motion that I had first tried to table at steering committee the week prior, on the Monday. However, we were given information at that time that it would not be possible. It was out of order because the report would not be tabled until the 22nd.

I don't want to assume that anyone—Mr. Brown—would have misinformed the committee, but it was in fact tabled on the 15th. The motion would have been in order and would have provided plenty of time, adequate time. Unfortunately, those were the circumstances.

That's just a reminder for Mr. Fitzpatrick of that sequence of events.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you, Mr. Wrzesnewskyj.

Mr. Christopherson, please.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

Again, to underscore that, that's exactly what happened in terms of why we didn't schedule it sooner. We were ready to, and we were given information that the report wasn't going to be here in a timely fashion. We acted on that in a responsible way. Then one of the government members tries to turn around and drop it on our heads. The fact of the matter is that I think we dealt with this adequately and properly.

Further to Mr. Laforest's comments, if we go with a date in the summer, if we pass that, I'm assuming that we would plan the rest of the day, perhaps do some report writing and start to get caught up. We're so darn far behind now. Maybe we could even stretch it into two days and start the fall session actually close to being caught up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I agree with that.

I'm going to put the question on the motion that the meeting be rescheduled to sometime during the summer. I will be consulting, of course, with the steering committee, but you have to appreciate that the scheduling is going to be difficult. But I will be consulting with the steering committee.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'm not exactly sure how much time we have left, so we're down to—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I have a motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I hope you have unanimous consent for your motion.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Oh, I'm sure it won't be a problem.

As part of this summer meeting, I'm looking to call Mr. Reg Alcock, former President of the Treasury Board.

So if there is unanimous consent—

[Some hon. members]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

There is no unanimous consent.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

All right. Note the Liberals present oppose that.

[An hon. member]

No.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

If you want to cover up for them, that's your choice. If you don't want him to answer questions, that's fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Okay. I think the debate is degenerating quickly here.

Having no further business to come before the meeting, I am going to adjourn the meeting.

The meeting is adjourned.