Agriculture Committee on Aug. 18th, 2008

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

Thanks, Mr. Chairman.

I'm having a hard time getting my head around why we don't want to hear the truth about this issue. In voting against Mr. Storseth's motion, basically what the opposition is saying is one of two things; you either don't want to hear the truth or you're saying that CFIA officials aren't going to give you the straight goods. That's what it appears to be.

I would think, Mr. Chairman, that if anyone has a care about food safety and inspection in this country, it's CFIA officials. I think we need to get back to them and let them tell us the story here. We're on a merry-go-round here and we're going nowhere.

[An hon. member]

Then let us--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Order.

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

I didn't interrupt you.

On the other side of it, André, you talked about the person who was let go for leaking government documents. If you had someone in your office who leaked something about an issue connected with one of your constituents, you would be forced to let that person go. That's a reality. You know that and I know that. That kind of thing is unacceptable. There was no other way, so you can't go into that. And to say otherwise, it makes it a farce if--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Monsieur Bellavance, on a point of order.

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

I'm directly concerned, Mr. Chairman. I don't think the comparison is really a good one because he informed his union that there was a problem. This isn't a leak or anything of that kind; it's very different. I don't want us to try to compare this with what I would do or not do. I think this employee did the right thing. This isn't at all the same thing as a leak from my office.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

That's debate.

Mr. Miller.

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

I'm surprised that you would support that kind of thing, André, but that's certainly your prerogative.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to hear what CFIA has to say on this, and the sooner we can get to it the better.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I have nobody else left on my speakers list. Seeing none, I'll call the question.

I'll read the motion by Mr. Easter one more time, just so we know what we're voting on:

That the Committee demands that government provide the Committee with the plan to abandon critical food safety inspections as was reportedly approved by Treasury Board in November 2007; and that the Committee begin a study of the plan to abandon food safety inspections and report the results back to the House of Commons.

(Motion agreed to)

[An hon. member]

It was unanimous.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

No, we had abstentions.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

We don't have a motion to call witnesses.

Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I'll make another motion that we call the CFIA witnesses--and maybe we can get unanimous consent to have them here as soon as possible to come to the table--and hear the truth.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

So we have a motion on the table to call the CFIA witnesses, with an amendment by Mr. Easter.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Yes, the amendment is that we call CFIA witnesses immediately, but that the union, PIPSC, be asked to appear before the committee tomorrow morning, at 8 or 8:30. I know they're willing to come at 8 o'clock. That would give us a balance in terms of the witnesses we have heard from. The agency no doubt will speak for the government; and we'll hear from the union, which will speak for the people who work in the system.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

The amendment shall be that we call PIPSC to the committee tomorrow morning at 8 or 8:30, according to their availability.

Is there any debate on the amendment?

Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

We're more than willing to hear as many witnesses as you'd like. Unfortunately, I think, at least in my case, it's an impossibility for me to be here tomorrow morning. I have another commitment that was made some time ago. I would like to suggest that maybe we can negotiate that. This has sort of been sprung on us. We have the CFIA officials here and we're all here, so that's one thing, but maybe even you yourselves or others might have other commitments. If there's any way we could negotiate a little more notice, that would be helpful.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Are there any other comments?

Mr. Miller, and then Mr. Easter.

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

Mr. Chairman, personally I have things on tomorrow too, but I can make it work. I know what Mr. Lauzon has on, and I think it's going to be next to impossible for him to change it.

Just out of fairness and what he said, last week when this came out—Wayne talked about it earlier—in conversation between you and him, there was flexibility. We talked about it and we made it work. I think there's an indication here to make it work. We could ask for that same thing here again to get a time that is suitable for everybody.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Easter.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I do think, Mr. Chair, we have to hear from both in, really, the initial hearing. That can be done with the labour union tomorrow morning. I have, and I know some others have, commitments as well tomorrow, but in order to balance the arguments, I do believe we have to have that hearing tomorrow morning. We'd like to be accommodating, but we all are going to end up having to cancel some stuff. You have other members who may be able to replace you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Are there any other comments?

I'm going to call the question on the amendment, which is to have the union, PIPSC, at the committee tomorrow morning at 8 or 8:30.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

We're back to the main motion, which now reads:

That the committee call CFIA officials as soon as possible;

-- which would be immediately following this--

and that the union, PIPSC, be asked to appear tomorrow at 8 or 8:30 in the morning.

Are there any further comments or debate?

Mr. Storseth.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

Mr. Chair, I'd just like to make one small point on this--not that I'm going to vote against it. But this definitely, to me, is outside the scope of the motion that Mr. Easter passed about some secret document. We're actually talking about another issue here. I just want to make that point clear.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Is there any other debate?

I'll call the question on the main motion, as amended, to call the CFIA.

(Motion agreed to)