Status of Women Committee on Nov. 21st, 2007

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Committee members, should we get the copies of the reports that have been done by the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights?

I just want to know, Madame Boucher, would you have been on the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights? No? Oh, official languages. Okay. Because I just wanted to know if that Sharon McIvor case was ever studied. No? Okay.

If we could look at the reports that have been done by the Standing committees on Canadian Heritage, Justice and Human Rights, and Official Languages and then sieve out what is not relevant to us and say these issues are still relevant to us, and then make a decision, would that be agreeable to move forward?

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Chair, I suggest that all the committees that have studied the Court Challenges Program—

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

I cannot say when.

[A voice]

The official languages committee had some.

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

Is that so? I was not aware of that. I did the—

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Does anybody know when this study was completed?

The government would have responded by now for sure.

So we will look at the reports, and if there have been government responses we'll look at them and then we will determine how to move forward with the court challenges program from a woman's perspective.

Yes, Mr. Stanton.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

In terms of process, had the prorogation occurred, if the reports had been tabled with the House and a response was pending, would it be up to the new committees to resubmit, or would those responses be forthcoming anyway? In other words, prorogation doesn't affect--

[A voice]

It's the same session. It's not a new one.

[Bruce Stanton, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Excellent. Okay, good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Any other business?

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Madam Chair, I would also like to table the following motion: that after reading the reports and everything else, we study the Court Challenges Program.

We have to make motions to get things on the agenda. Therefore, I would like us to study this program and the impact that it had on women, especially on minority women.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay. Have you got that?

[The Clerk]

It was agreed that after looking at reports from other standing committees, the committee will decide whether it wants to study the court challenges program, focused on women.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

No--“after having reviewed the programs”. Can I paraphrase what you said?

[The Clerk]

Normally I should get a real written motion, and I'm trying to--

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Do we have to table a motion here if we want to have something on the agenda? Without a motion, will it not get on the agenda?

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

So you are proposing that once the committee has reviewed the three reports, that we be able to look at the angle and see if it deals with the impact on women of the cancellation of the court challenges program?

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

That we study the Court Challenges Program and the impact of its abolition on women's groups, more specifically minorities, which includes first nations women.

We want to do it. We don't want to talk about doing it; we want to do it.

[The Clerk]

You don't want to see if you want to do it. You want to look at reports and you're doing it no matter what.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

But you will have a better understanding of it.

Ms. Mathyssen, you had your hand up.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes, Madam Chair.

Two things. One thing, rather mundane, is I'm wondering about this room. It seems very small. I'm wondering if when we begin to have our witnesses we could have a better space and have a little breathing room.

The second thing is that I've been giving some thought with regard to when people come to give testimony about the estimates. And I would like to ask that staff from the regional offices come as part of that so that we can find out how they're managing after a year of closures, in terms of those twelve offices that were closed. Perhaps that could be part of our discussion when we look at the estimates and we ask about how the department is functioning.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Ms. Mathyssen, if I hear you correctly, afterwards, when we're doing a thorough analysis, we should get the regional office staffs to come?

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Yes. I'd like to hear how they're managing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Okay.

Mr. Stanton.