Evidence of meeting #19 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was office.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:55 p.m.
Bloc
Roger Gaudet Bloc Montcalm, QC
As Ms. Hinton said, if there are many witnesses to hear from, there is no point starting to look at the bill before the holidays. We would be better off waiting until after the break, because if we start now and don't finish, we won't remember anything when we reconvene.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I agree with Betty and Roger.
If I hoped to have everything approved, the day is not until August, and the committee has so many sitting days to deal with it. There's no grief from me if the committee, hopefully, will get to it within its first statutory time limit, without needing an extension. How many sitting days is it, 30 sitting days--60? Anyway, I'm not sure if I have a conflict of interest, being a member of the committee and it being my bill, but there's no grief for me if, for example, the committee wants to look at an actual proposal for an ombudsman ahead of that, in December. We've agreed to have our researcher, Michel, give us something, I think, in January.
If there's more important stuff...as long as there's hopefully general agreement that we don't go to the end of 60 days, sometime next June, because I'm hoping we have something in place for August.
5 p.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Mr. Chairman, I sympathize a great deal with my colleague Mr. St. Denis. We all voted in favour of Mr. St. Denis' bill on first reading in the House. The only point of contention is the date.
Mr. Chairman, the bill contains three clauses. I can't believe it's going to take us two, five or six years to get through it. We can dispense with it in one or two meetings, since everyone is on board. End of discussion. How can anyone object? The only point of contention is the date. Are we talking about yesterday, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? If we can't agree on that, then it's time for us to get into another line of work.
5 p.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Mr. Chair, I'd like to move that we continue on with the ombudsman and the bill of rights, as we agreed as a committee at the beginning of the year, and that Mr. St. Denis' bill could possibly be the next piece of business that we do, once we finish the bill of rights and the ombudsman.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
That sounds as if we could never get to it. I know from time to time we'll have a meeting when nothing is scheduled. But so as long as it's understood that it doesn't mean “never”.... Hopefully, if it slips past December we could get to it. When we start our first meetings after a break, it's usually quiet. There might be a good chance to do it in the first meeting or two when we come back at the end of January or the first week of February.
5 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
So again, no grief from me, if there's an understanding that we're not giving this thing a heist or a hijacking.
5 p.m.
Conservative
5 p.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
I disagree somewhat with Ms. Hinton. I'm not saying she's right, but we've almost completed our study of the ombudsman question. Next, we'll be moving on to the Veterans Charter, which could take weeks and even months. Just think of how many months we devoted to our study of the ombudsman issue. The Charter will take up just as much of our time. When will we adopt Brent's bill on peacekeepers? I would much rather we amend Ms. Hinton's motion. Let's attend to this once we've finished with the ombudsman question -- and we're almost done with that , since we have only one more witness to hear from -- and before we begin our study of the charter. Madam, it will take us only two days to adopt the bill. We all agree with it, all parties voted in favour of it on first reading. The only minor glitch is the date. Will it be August 9 or August 22? That's the only point of disagreement among the parties. Don't tell me that we can't settle this in a day or two.
5 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay, Mr. Perron. It seems as though you moved an amendment to the motion. What's the amendment?
5:05 p.m.
Bloc
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Okay. Understood.
On the issue of the amendment, we had Mr. Shipley before the motion. Do you wish to speak to the motion, Mr. Shipley?
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
5:05 p.m.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Well, it's all part and parcel of it. Quite honestly, we've.... I don't think anyone is opposed to getting into it, Mr. St. Denis. That's not it. I just don't want to lose our focus. I mean, we say a day or two. I don't know if that's right or not.
I do know that we're committed to dealing with the ombudsman. We know there's some urgency for the vets to start to deal with it and get something in place. I think if we're going to have witnesses, we need to get them lined up. We need to make a decision on committees, so that we have all the ones we want.
I don't know what your thoughts about today were, but it would be good to hear our committee's thoughts on it. I don't know if this is on the amendment or not, but it's really quite—
5:05 p.m.
Conservative