Evidence of meeting #32 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 document.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
If it's clear that we have everything in front of us, why do we only have one set of comments from stakeholders. Are they the only ones who bothered to send something in?
9:15 a.m.
Committee Researcher
No. When Mr. Hoppe came before the committee, there was a discussion about consultations with veterans groups on the draft bill of rights. He offered to make available to the committee whatever they had. That's the document that was sent out in November or December, in that period. It was sent out again yesterday.
It's just one copy from what one group examined, but I believe the draft bill of rights is in there, as it was examined by the veterans groups that were involved in the consultations.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
You could either look at it as the glass half-empty or the glass half-full. Certainly when it has “Draft” stamped all over it, along with all these other little things, it's obviously not preconceived. There's a lot of room to move. That's the upside.
Mr. Valley, are you...?
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
9:15 a.m.
Bloc
Gilles-A. Perron Bloc Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC
Some members are very easily confused. I can give you a hand. For once, francophones are very well equipped. I have the French version, and the original English version, and no draft. If you would like to make some photocopies right away, then these could be distributed.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
That is a very productive suggestion, Monsieur Perron. That's great.
Yes, Mrs. Hinton.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
I understand Mr. Valley's concern. It would be hard to go through this if you hadn't been at every meeting at which there was someone who made comments. I think what they've done is gather up all of the commentary from every person who has been a witness at this committee, and anything they said pertaining to the bill of rights is in this document.
We have an option here. I don't have a problem personally—I don't know about anybody else on the committee—but we could certainly get a legal opinion. That would be fine by me, and it might be very helpful.
The other thing we might want to do is make a decision as to whether or not we're going to table this in the House before the end of this week.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Okay. Or do you want to just give it to the minister? Tabling it in the House is, to me, more official, but we can go whatever way you want to go.
Those are the kinds of things we need to decide. Perhaps we could go through this in greater detail and everyone could have their input ready by our next meeting, which is Thursday.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I look forward to the clean copy that Gilles is providing to us.
The overview at the beginning obviously doesn't form part of the text, because in there it asks, “Will this document carry the weight of law?” It then says, “See memo.”
Presumably we're starting this with “Our Promise to You”. Do we have the answers? Is somebody offering answers to the questions in the overview? Or are there answers to the questions in the overview?
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
That's why I was asking if that was the case. In terms of a bill of rights, yes, that's a fair question.
I would say that we have the time once we have the full copy back. It's a short document. Let's read through it together. At least we will have read it together.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
I don't disagree with your suggestion that people bring comments back, but most of us haven't seen anything but this version here, which is very difficult to concentrate on.
Is there disagreement about reading through it together? It's a short document. It would take us ten minutes.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
My only comment is that if we get this, I think we should go through it.
Getting it tabled in the House before we leave is likely going to be a little problematic in terms of timing. I don't know. I'll look to the clerk for some direction. But if we don't wrap it up today, and we're just going to have suggestions that come in on Thursday, well, Friday is the last day. And likely, putting it in the House by Friday isn't going to be much more formal than giving it to the minister, because I suspect that, like on a lot of Fridays, there won't be many people here. And this is the day before two weeks in your ridings.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Betty Hinton Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
How about giving notice and then doing it right after the break?
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
Monsieur Perron wants to respond.
My guess is that if it's tabled in the House, there's a possibility that it will get more sis-boom-bah and media attention for the committee's work or whatever. But anyhow....
Monsieur Perron.