Evidence of meeting #1 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Is that okay with everyone?
Okay. We'll ask the department to come in for an hour and then we'll get witnesses.
Again, send in the names of any witnesses you want. How many do you think we should have? In two hours we usually have three or four maximum?
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
We'll have six to eight at the most. Send in all the names you want, and then we'll exchange—
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Also rank them in order of importance. If you have three, give your numbers one, two, and three so that it's a lot easier for the clerk to....
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
We've already said that those who have appeared in front of international trade we will not bring back, so we have agreement that the clerk, if we mistakenly—
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Do we know who is on their list of witnesses who may still come?
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
No, we don't, but perhaps the clerk could reach out to the other clerk if that's an issue.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
If we have them first, then trade may do the same and not bring them back for theirs.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Okay, so it looks as though we have our day scheduled for Thursday. As I said, I know some notices of motion have been put forward. The earlier we get those, the better. Then we'll have to sit down. We have 27 weeks, give or take, depending on how quickly we break in June. That seems like a lot, but it's not a whole lot. I was looking at one motion that asked for six meetings. We're already taking six, plus drafting the report and all that. That also takes time.
Again, following the same idea, rank your motions in their order of importance to you, and then we can sit down and say which one is urgent, and we'll do that one first. Sometimes we can start on a second one, too, because the first one is stuck somewhere.
I open the floor if you want to discuss motions and priority further.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Obviously, Mr. Chair, the impact of the carbon tax on agriculture, I think, is front of mind. I have spoken to many of my colleagues around the table here about that. That will be our number one priority. We've given a few other notices of motion as well. I would table my motion that, after the CUSMA review, our first study be on the impact—positives and negatives. As I've worded the motion, I also think it's an opportunity for us to highlight some of the conservation, carbon sequestration and other such things that already happen in agriculture, which maybe we don't talk enough about. I would suggest that would be our first study after the CUSMA review.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
Could you all send me your motions and just a brief description of what you want to study? We can share them. At the end of the day, it will be the committee that decides. Some of them will probably be very similar or the same. Please prioritize your motions and forward all of them to the clerk. If you have 10, that's fine. Send them along. We never know. The last one might get done. Prioritize them, and then, as a committee, we'll decide. There will be give and take, and there will be negotiations as to which one we'll do first.
Would that be acceptable to everyone?
Mr. Blois.
Liberal
Kody Blois Liberal Kings—Hants, NS
Mr. Chair, that sounds quite reasonable. I've had the chance to see some of the notices of motion that were tabled by my Conservative colleagues. There is some interplay in terms of what I think would be important as well, so perhaps there's an opportunity to have everyone, as you mentioned, bring those forward and we can decide on the best practice moving forward.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan
It probably won't be at the next meeting, because we have a full agenda for that, but I can get the clerk to put a sheet together. Then we can sit down afterwards, probably next Tuesday, and we can decide and get the work started on that.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
Just on that, on the trade committee, if we do set it aside as a subcommittee to do that letter after Thursday, would we have time to bring that letter here for the entire committee to see before it has to go to the trade committee on Tuesday?
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
John, you'll remember what we did in the past. We often sent the letter around to committee members when we had time-tight deadlines.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Yes. We would have an opportunity for 15 minutes on Tuesday. It's due by four o'clock.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
By four o'clock? Okay. I wasn't sure of the time. It'll be over the weekend or whatever....
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Yes, that's what I would suggest, to allow time for the analysts. We can send some guidance on Thursday to the analysts and they can draft it. Then, maybe on Monday at five o'clock, we can give our stamp of approval.
Liberal