Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) Committee on Nov. 23rd, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

You're moving that as a--

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

As a motion before the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

As a new motion.

Is there discussion?

Mr. Rodriguez.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

Even though I look forward to hearing from the ministers, Thursday is impossible for me. I do not know my colleague's schedule, he is not here, but one would expect a minimum heads up if we are to meet two ministers at the same time. As much as I would like to meet with them soon, I cannot do this within 36 hours.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Madame Lavallée.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

The same thing can be said for the Bloc Québécois. I have spoken to my colleague and we too are quite anxious to meet with them, but if a government is sincere in wanting to do this work, it must provide us with time to prepare for the ministers' appearance on the bill. So, Thursday morning is too early.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Is there further discussion on the motion?

Mr. Lake.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

I'm finding it really hard to believe that we have two ministers who actually want to come before the committee at a specific time. It's two days from now. It happens on a fairly regular basis that we schedule meetings and people aren't willing to adjust their schedules.

At the very worst, Mr. Rodriguez can certainly find a substitute for that if he has to He can tell the substitute what questions he wants asked and then he can review the testimony, as happens on a regular basis here.

This is just a further indication.... It is completely clear to me that none of these parties has any interest whatsoever in moving this legislation forward. I'm very surprised, particularly with the Liberal position.

I'm shocked, I really am, that Mr. Rodriguez can't alter his schedule or find a substitute to show up for him and then review the testimony of the ministers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Is there any further discussion?

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Yes. It seems that we're going off really badly this morning and I think it's very unfortunate.

I don't have a problem meeting with the ministers. I guess I'm sort of surprised that it wasn't part of a discussion that we would have had about laying out our work schedule. I found that unusual. I don't mind meeting on Thursday morning. I don't have a problem with that. What I don't want is for us to get into this constant confrontation about it.

I thought we were going to lay out our witness schedule, talk about our plan, and then bring the ministers in. That is why I am reluctant to just move in on this Thursday, but I don't have a problem with it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Mr. Del Mastro.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

First of all, I would like to thank Charlie for his support on that.

To Charlie's point, and with due respect to all members, I never saw an opportunity to insert it before; I just did because I was thinking that we would have a Thursday morning schedule, and I would suggest that they could kick things off as the first witnesses on Thursday.

I do apologize if there was no heads-up on it, but we do appreciate your support.

You can call the question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Okay. I see no further discussion. We'll move to a vote on the motion to hear from the ministers this coming Thursday, November 25, from 8:45 to 10:45. All in favour? Opposed?

(Motion agreed to)

The motion is carried.

Okay. Moving along, you have in front of you lists of potential witnesses. We should also hear from our analysts. Maybe we could just have a little introduction from our analysts, since we're going to be spending some time with them.

[Dara Lithwick, Committee Researcher]

My name is Dara Lithwick and I'm an analyst at the Library of Parliament.

Our information will be available to you.

With me is my colleague, Maxime-Olivier Thibodeau.

We very much look forward to working with you on this bill and providing background materials as necessary. That's about it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Hello. We've met once. You're very well apprised of the bill.

Are you our legal counsel or are you parliamentary counsel? Will we have legal counsel on this committee?

[Dara Lithwick]

We're not here as legal counsel. We do not provide legal advice. We are here as Library of Parliament analysts to provide background briefing materials and that sort of thing.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Will there be legal counsel for the committee?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Yes, there will be. You'll be hearing more about that.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Madame Lavallée, did you have your hand up?

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Out of curiosity, I would like to know if you sat on the industry committee. I know that you were not a member of the heritage committee. Did you use to sit on the industry committee?

[Dara Lithwick]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you, Madame Lavallée.

We are running out of time, so what I'm going to propose is that on Wednesday, tomorrow at 3:30, we meet and hear from our analysts and then spend the rest of the time working on our plan to move forward in terms of witnesses. So for this week, tomorrow we will hear from the analysts and work on the work plan and on Thursday we will hear from the ministers. Tomorrow we will figure out the plan for going forward.

Mr. Garneau.

[Marc Garneau, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. What timing was this tomorrow?