Veterans Affairs Committee on March 10th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I call this meeting to order.

Welcome to meeting number 15 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.

We are starting today in public, as we committed to in the last meeting, in order for a series of motions to be brought forward.

If there's no objection, I will recognize Monsieur Desilets, if he wishes to move his motions. If not, that's fine as well, but we'll go directly to in camera to start with the report, if that's the case.

Monsieur Desilets.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This should go fairly smoothly. My colleagues have probably heard members of other committees talk about it. I am moving two motions today.

I will read the first one to you right away:

That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, Mr. Desilets.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

I have John and Sean. We'll go with John first.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My comment is probably very similar to Sean's.

One of the things that we've seen at other committees is an amendment that's been made of adding the words “members' offices” after “federal department”. I would move that amendment for the reasons that have been stated at other committees. We want to ensure—

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

For federal offices....

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

After “from a federal department”, comma, amend it to read “members' offices”.

One of the things that we want to ensure is that all documents coming from our MP offices that can be translated internally by OLO and other places are not delayed due to the mandatory linguistic revisions.

I would also add “members' offices”. Like I said, it's consistent with what some of the other committees have done as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's an amendment to the motion. We'll have to deal with that first.

Sean, do you have anything to add to that?

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

No, thank you, Mr. Chair.

I support the amendment.

If the motion is amended, as Mr. Brassard suggested, I will also support the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Can I just, for clarification, check with the clerk and analysts?

Do the clerk and the analysts do their own interpretation on documents that come to the committee? If so, should they also be included in this amendment?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Benoit Jolicoeur]

I can go ahead, Mr. Chair.

If the analysts want to add to this, they're more than welcome.

Per the routine motion, documents that are provided to members have to be in both official languages. In those cases, they would be translated by the translation bureau.

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré, Committee Researcher]

One exception is revisions to the draft reports. Usually I'll do the translation from English to French myself, to save a few days. That would be the only exception to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I know that's not the case in every committee.

I'm wondering, if I'm allowed, to make a friendly subamendment to the amendment to also include our analysts and clerk. I wouldn't want to add to the potential delays if this is currently the practice.

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré]

If you add my translations to that motion, it will create delays. That's for sure. For revisions to draft reports, if you add that my revisions have to go through the translation bureau, that would add probably three days to every document, at least.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Okay. In order to add to Mr. Brassard's amendment, I would need consent from the committee. Is that okay? Is anyone dissenting on that?

Apparently we have a technical problem here. We're going to suspend momentarily. Sorry, we'll come right back.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Sorry about that. We are back up and running.

We were in the process of dealing with Monsieur Desilets' first motion.

There was an amendment by Mr. Brassard, and I see Sean Casey has his hand up.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

After your comments, I know that you cannot propose an amendment, so I will do so. I would like to propose a subamendment to Mr. Brassard's amendment.

I would like to add the following to his amendment: “the office of the clerk of the committee and the office of the committee analyst”.

My subamendment aims to add those two offices. The motion already mentions members and their office, but I think the clerk and the analysts must be added to the list.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you, Mr. Casey.

We'll need to deal with the subamendment first.

Is there any discussion on the subamendment?

Rachel.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

I'm clarifying. I think the analyst said that if we did that, it would extend the amount of time for us to get reports back. I want to make sure we're clear on that before we support that or not.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

I hear what you're saying. I think I heard the same thing. I assumed it was a misunderstanding, but we'll ask the analyst to clarify that.

If we don't do this subamendment, and include him, in the ability to translate his own documents, that would lead to additional delays if he had to submit them.

Mr. Analyst.

[Jean-Rodrigue Paré]

Yes, it would add delays to revisions to draft reports, that's for sure.

For example, in this instance, for this report, I was able to have it sent to you on the Friday because I did all the revisions myself. All the changes to the report that were submitted by all parties, I translated myself. That would have taken at least three more days, as I am obliged to go through the translation bureau for that. All the other documents go through the translation bureau, but I've been doing changes to draft reports myself for 15 years now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's excellent.

Sean, go ahead.

[Sean Casey, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

I want to be absolutely clear. The subamendment I proposed will ensure that we will continue to use the practice we are currently using. Isn't that right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

That's correct.

Is there any further discussion?

I don't know if we need a full-on vote, maybe we can do a quick show of hands.

(Subamendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we will deal with the amended amendment from Mr. Brassard to include members' offices and the clerk and analyst.

(Amendment as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Monsieur Desilets, thank you.

That took a lot longer than I was hoping, but if you wish to go on to the second motion, please go ahead.

[Luc Desilets, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

That's life. This will go faster.

The second motion proposes technical tests for witnesses. I move:

That the clerk inform each witness who is to appear before the Committee that the House Administration support team must conduct technical tests to check the connectivity and the equipment used to ensure the best possible sound quality; and that the Chair advise the Committee, at the start of each meeting, of any witness who did not perform the required technical tests.

I must inform you, Mr. Chair and respected colleagues, that the administration produced a report on this. The Board of Internal Economy and the Liaison Committee also agree. Yesterday, we went through a situation with a witness that was difficult for us, difficult for the interpretation and difficult for the witness. He was placed in a rather unusual situation. The witness did not know how to handle the technology.

So that is the goal of the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bryan May]

Thank you.

Is there any discussion?

I see MP Casey.