Agriculture Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Thank you, Mr. Shipley.

The next motion is on reduced quorum:

That the Chair be authorized to hold meetings and to receive and publish evidence when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four (4) members are present, including one member of the opposition and one of the government.

[An hon. member]

So moved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

(Motion agreed to)

The next item is on distribution of documents:

That only the Clerk of the Committee be authorized to distribute to the members of the Committee and only when the documents are available in both official languages and that witnesses be advised accordingly.

That is moved by Mr. Warkentin.

(Motion agreed to)

Next is working meals:

That the Clerk of the Committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide working meals for the Committee and its subcommittees.

That is moved by Mr. Warkentin.

(Motion agreed to)

Our next motion is on witnesses' expenses:

That, if requested, reasonable travel, accommodation and living expenses be reimbursed to witnesses, not exceeding two (2) representatives per organization; and that, in exceptional circumstances, payment for more representatives be made at the discretion of the Chair.

That is moved by Mr. Longfield.

(Motion agreed to)

The next motion is in regard to staff at in camera meetings:

That, unless otherwise ordered, each Committee member be allowed to be accompanied by one (1) staff person at an in camera meeting. In addition, each party shall be permitted to have one (1) party staff member attend in camera meetings.

That is moved by Mr. Shipley.

(Motion agreed to)

Our next motion concerns in camera meeting transcripts:

That one copy of the transcript of each in camera meeting be kept in the Committee Clerk's office for consultation by members of the Committee or by their staff.

That is moved by Mr. Warkentin.

(Motion agreed to)

The next motion is in regard to notice of motions:

That a notice of 48 hours, interpreted as two nights, be required before a member may move a substantive motion, unless it deals directly with a matter before the Committee at this time, provided that: (a) this notice be emailed to the Committee Clerk no later than 4:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday; (b) that the notice be distributed by e-mail to members in both official languages by the Clerk on the same day the said notice was transmitted if it was received no later than the deadline hour; (c) that notices received after the deadline hour be deemed to have been received during the next business day; and (d) that this rule does not prevent a member from giving notice of a motion orally during a meeting of the Committee, in which case notice shall be deemed to have been given before the deadline that day.

The motion has been moved by Mr. Breton.

(Motion agreed to)

The next motion is in regard to time allocation:

That witnesses shall be allowed up to ten (10) minutes to make their opening statement.

Then there will be a rotation by time. In round one, a Conservative will have six minutes; Liberal, six minutes; NDP, also six minutes; and Liberal, again six minutes. In round two, a Liberal will have six minutes; Conservative, six minutes; Liberal, six minutes; Conservative, five minutes; followed by NDP with three minutes. The allocation of time for questioning will total 50 minutes.

This is moved by Chris Warkentin.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

That takes care of the routine motions. I have nothing else on the agenda.

Is there anything else?

Mr. Shipley.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I just had a thought. I think most committees agree that there are times when we want witnesses present at the end of the table, but there are other times when we as a committee can take great advantage of the technology that's available to us, particularly when we're asking people to travel from one side of the country to the other. It depends on the study, obviously, but I think we've been able to use that technology with a lot of success. It's just a thought, and certainly as the clerks are reaching out to people, that might be something for them to know.

On the second part, I don't know about you, but I'm a visual person, and one of the challenges when witnesses come in is that we don't always get something to read, particularly in both languages. I know what our procedures say and I think we should always encourage them to have some sort of documentation. It may not be the full text of the speech, but even just the points are sometimes very beneficial to many of us, I would say. When people are talking without them, you can miss something that's key. Anyway, it's just a thought.

Mr. Chair, the procedures are in place, but quite honestly, in agriculture you're going to find that in some of the commodity organizations these guys are actual farmers who are coming out, and they don't have a large administrative operation or much access to translation. They can get it to us, but sometimes the timing, because of their schedules of work and planting and harvest or whatever, might be.... I don't know if we could allow asking for that even if we could have it.

I know that we need to have consensus, but I just leave that as a thought too, because I think we all want the committee to have as much information as possible. We understand the significance of both official languages, we really do. On the other hand, sometimes these folks just come forward and want to talk about their issues. It's very personal to them in their lives and in their business.

I'll just leave it at that point.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

From the information I've received, it is common practice to ask any witness to send at least their talking notes, and we provide copies for the whole group. I think that's....

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

They do that, but what I find, Mr. Chair, is that sometimes it's a bit intimidating to the local fellow or lady who is coming from somewhere and thinking that they need to have this whole formal presentation. Anyway, I'm just asking. Maybe sometimes we may want to be flexible to accommodate the witnesses who are trying to accommodate the best interests of our study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes, absolutely.

Would anyone like to comment on what Mr. Shipley just said?

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I think it is very important, though, for committee members who are more comfortable with the French language to have that information available to them. In the case of points notes, there should be some minimum standards so that the people in the committee can be well informed too.

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Mr. Drouin.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Do we translate documents if they send them in on time beforehand? I think we do, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Pat Finnigan]

Yes. I'm not sure how much time it takes.

Normally, I think we need two days to have documents translated.

We ask the witness to submit the documents two to four days ahead of time. I agree that it's not always.... I suppose we have to be flexible if we definitely want to see a person and all he has is himself. We'll be flexible. I guess it is standard practice that we do it, and, Mr. Shipley, you would probably know about that.

When the committee invites people wishing to give a presentation, it's important to do so with enough advance notice for them to contribute to our study and for us to prepare briefing notes and ensure any necessary follow-up.

Any further comments?

I thank you all for the first meeting.

I wish you all a good rest of the afternoon.

The meeting is adjourned.