Agriculture Committee on May 4th, 2006

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Nonetheless, I'm trying to understand. It seems that the argument is this. If we allow two people, and two people come, this will automatically raise our expenses. If we limit it to one, probably one person will come. If you offer it to two, some people may take advantage of that, and the concern is whether the committee could afford that. If it looks like it's being abused, then I would think we should re-examine it, but at this stage I think we should go with the two. Based on the number of witnesses called versus other committees, it seems that this has been reasonable and modest, as opposed to excessive.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you, Ken.

Alex, you had an intervention?

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Yes. Listening to both sides here, I think we have a big job ahead of us and we need...we can hear from as many people as possible. If we can somehow help in that way, why not do it? Obviously, if it's abused, we should look at it. I would agree with the motion for having two people.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you.

Is there any other discussion? I think we've gone around.

Mr. Miller, do you have a last point?

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Yes.

I'm glad we had the discussion. We're here not only to get information, but also to avoid wasting taxpayers' money.

To go back to Wayne's comments, I did not in any way intend to make commodity groups suffer. That isn't what this was all about.

I'll give you some examples. Many times in the last year and a half we would have four representatives from one organization--I remember one in particular--and only one member, one of those four individuals, spoke. In most cases, one individual out of three or four would do 90% to 95% of the speaking. As well, some of the commodity groups--and I won't name them--have representatives right here in Ottawa, so when an individual travelled from Alberta, for example, they also had one of their representatives already here.

Hearing all the discussion, Mr. Chairman, I have no problem at this point in supporting the two. I think it was a good discussion, but when we have three to four representatives here, I don't think it benefits a whole lot, and maybe we should look at the numbers there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

We tend to do that through the speaking time allowed, Mr. Miller.

Mr. Bezan, do you have one last point?

[James Bezan, Conservative, Selkirk—Interlake, MB]

I have one last point, just so Ken can understand why there is a discrepancy between what we budgeted and what we paid. It's because farm organizations, for the most part, pay their way to be here. It's only been used in times of financial hardship of different organizations or for witnesses who come forward. So not having to spend the money didn't affect our work as a committee last time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

All right. Thank you. I think we've had a full discussion on that.

Would someone care to move that motion? We've had Mr. Miller's objections withdrawn. Mr. Boshcoff moves the motion.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you.

On the motion for distribution of documents with translation, is there any discussion? Again, it's fairly straightforward from last time. It's pretty much synonymous.

It is moved by Mr. Steckle. Is it accepted by the committee?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

On working meals, we've had the odd time...it depends a lot on your time for the committee. Ours will be 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. You've had that notice. At one point we were at the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock timeframe. From time to time, when we've had special witnesses come in, we've also had supper meals.

Does anyone have a concern with that particular motion?

Mr. Boshcoff--you're on a diet?

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

It's probably a good idea, actually. Life here is like one giant calorie.

I feel that to some extent.... I think we should add that if it's necessary, as opposed to normal, because when we're eating and the witnesses are here, not only is it kind of uncomfortable for us, but it's somewhat embarrassing. I think 1 o'clock isn't a long stretch to go to have our lunch, either before or after. I'm in favour of dumping the meal thing unless we're working through a special meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Are you prepared to put in an amendment to say if necessary--to add the two words “if necessary”?

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Yes. That would be my amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Okay.

It is moved by Mr. Boshcoff that we add “if necessary” after that.

Is there any discussion on the amendment? Everyone is okay with that? It seems fairly innocuous.

The mover then would read the motion with his amendment in it.

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

The motion is that the clerk of the committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide for working meals for the committee and its subcommittees if necessary.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Okay. You're putting it at the end, rather than.... Yes, it's still in there.

Mr. Miller.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Can I add an amendment to the amendment--to what was said?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

We have to handle one first. If you want to do another amendment, we'll clear the floor.

Mr. Boshcoff is adding “if necessary” at the end of the motion. Does anyone have a concern with that?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

All right, it's “if necessary”. We don't want anybody cranky.

Mr. Miller.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

I was just going to add further that it be at the chairman's discretion to decipher what is “as necessary”.

[Ken Boshcoff, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

I take that as a friendly amendment

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

Thank you, Mr. Miller.

We have a friendly amendment, which is, “if necessary at the discretion of the chair”.... Mr. Boshcoff has accepted it. Is everyone okay with that? Do you want me to read the whole motion again?

[A voice]

Please.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gerry Ritz]

The motion reads:

That the Clerk of the Committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide for working meals for the Committee and its subcommittees if necessary, and at the discretion of the Chair

(Motion as amended agreed to)

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

In camera meeting transcripts. We actually basically covered that up higher, did we not? It's basically the same. We covered the transcripts up higher here. We will ignore that one.

Having come to the end of that page, we'll go back to page 1, ladies and gentlemen, and start with the second motion establishing a subcommittee on agenda and procedure.

Mr. Bellavance, you had an intervention on that particular motion, I understand.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

Mr. Chairman, when I served on the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, we amended the routine motion, because occasionally some persons who were not specifically staff in the member's office were in attendance. The motion in French reads as follows: “Que, à moins qu'il en soit ordonné autrement, chaque membre du Comité soit autorisé à être acompagné d'un membre du personnel du parti aux séances à huis clos”.

From time to time, as we're seeing here today in the case of the persons seated behind the Conservatives...