Evidence of meeting #17 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 meetings.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Markus Haerle  Chair, Grain Farmers of Ontario
Mark Brock  Co-chair, National Program Advisory Committee, Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food
Benoit Legault  Chief Executive Officer, Producteurs de grains du Québec
Todd Lewis  President, Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan
Alan Ker  Ontario Agricultural College Research Chair in Agricultural Risk and Policy, Professor, Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics and Managing, As an Individual
Corentin Bialais  Committee Researcher
Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

First, we will vote to adopt the report. I can come back to the schedule if you like, Mr. Perron.

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

That's good.

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

If there are no further questions, I would like to have everyone's consent or support on the recommendations presented in the subcommittee's report.

Do we all agree on the subcommittee's recommendations?

I think everybody is good.

(Motion agreed to)

For the calendar, we have looked at the different dates. Again, there are a lot more meetings that perhaps might not happen because we have to review a different draft. If it takes us one or two meetings, the last couple of meetings might not need to happen, but we've put enough meetings in there so that we will have a final version of the report ready to table at the opening of Parliament on September 21. Looking at the calendar, that's what we have come up with.

Again, if we can approve it more quickly, it would mean fewer meetings, but that's basically what we have to present to the whips so that they can take care of the logistics.

Mr. MacGregor, you're first. Go ahead.

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

I just see that—

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

Can we discuss the schedule?

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Mr. Perron, I will give the floor to Mr. MacGregor. I will come back to you afterwards.

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

Okay.

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

All these dates are either Wednesdays or Fridays, so can I assume that the times we are meeting now on Wednesdays and Fridays will be the same for those dates, at the same time of day?

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Yes, I would assume so. We don't want to get you up at three in the morning, hopefully. I know it's a bit different across the country.

Do those hours work for you, Mr. MacGregor?

3:55 p.m.

NDP

Alistair MacGregor NDP Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC

Yes, the times we're currently meeting on Wednesdays and Fridays do work. I was just curious, because we may have summer events that we're starting to plug in. Those dates work for me already. It would just be great to get a confirmation on the times of day.

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Yes. I think that's what we'll strive for. Again, it will depend on the whips and the logistics, but I think that's what we'll strive to do.

Monsieur Perron.

3:55 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

First, allow me to present a dissenting opinion, or rather a constructive comment. We sometimes have very full days and I would have liked to get the schedule before today.

Second, I proposed something the other day that did not seem to cause objection. Instead of meeting once every other week—with the previous meeting being held some time ago, we would be less productive—I proposed to resume normal business much earlier. That way, we would be much more productive. Note that what I am proposing is not necessarily to hold fewer meetings. On the contrary, I would propose having more meetings. I would have us resume normal business on September 2 or 9, which would add the dates of September 9, 11, 16, 18, 23 and 25, before we resume normal business. We could remove the meeting in July or the one scheduled for early August.

I would like that option to be taken into consideration.

Thank you.

3:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Thank you, Mr. Perron.

The problem is that there is work to be done in between each of the report's versions. For instance, the committee's recommendations must be corrected by the analysts, they must be translated, and so on. So it is difficult to have all those meetings so close together. That is why we spread them out.

4 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

In that case, is it possible to move one of the meetings, the one on August 5? There are three weeks between July 10 and August 5. We could postpone the August 5 meeting to August 19. Instead of holding meetings on September 2 and September 16, we could hold them regularly, twice a week, starting on September 9. That way, we would be more productive.

If I am the only one with that opinion, I will yield, but it seems to me that it would be more logical.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Mr. Perron, I am trying to understand. Do you want us to hold more meetings or do you want to concentrate them earlier?

4 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

My proposal would be two-fold. I would like to concentrate them, and I would like to resume normal business earlier. That would lead to more rather than fewer meetings.

I feel that we won't be able to be productive by meeting once every two weeks, but I may be wrong.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

Mr. Chair, may I comment?

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

We are listening, Mr. Lehoux.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

I hope we won't need the meetings proposed for September 2 and 16 to finish the committee's final report, which must be tabled before Parliament. So I understand Mr. Perron's concern.

I hope that, at the August 5 and 19 meetings, we will be able to agree on tabling a report. Otherwise, we will have spent more time analyzing the report to be tabled than on the report itself.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

That's right. It is quite possible that those two meetings won't be necessary.

We have received enough proposals for business risk management programs to give us a good idea of what we want to include in the report.

4 p.m.

Conservative

Richard Lehoux Conservative Beauce, QC

Mr. Chair, I would like us to keep the two meetings in September. We could use them for potential work and get started on other issues, as we have presented a number of them.

4 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

May I speak, Mr. Chair?

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

We are listening, Mr. Perron.

4 p.m.

Bloc

Yves Perron Bloc Berthier—Maskinongé, QC

I agree with Mr. Lehoux on this. Perhaps I was not clear in my comments. My goal is for us to be productive and to begin working on something else. I hope that we won't need four meetings to prepare the report. We should not set aside more time for preparing the report than for hearing from witnesses.

The somewhat perverse effect I am seeing here—I've said it before and I will say it again—is that I feel that there are few breaks during the summer for support staff, among others. I would like to extend the summer break a bit and increase our productivity afterwards by starting up again on September 9. However, I don't know whether we have to decide on September 9 today.

4 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Pat Finnigan

Did you have something you wanted to say, Mr. Ellis?