Canadian Heritage Committee on May 6th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay.

I'll just make a suggestion that if this were September, I could see us going forward. I've been involved in copyright and in digital and new media, and I can tell you how involved it gets as you go forward. I think our last study took over a year.

We have Mr. Siksay's motion, which says we are going to look at CBC orchestra, at CBC Radio 2 and where they're going. We're going to do that before the break in June. If we count Thursday, we only have 10 or possibly 11 meetings—the 19th is sometimes a question mark. That's all the time we have. I say Thursday's meeting is probably iffy, because we have to have witnesses, and we have to be fair to our clerk and our researchers to make sure we have those things.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Then I would just like it to be put on the record that if we're going to do a job, I think we should do a proper job. We can't just fiddle with the edges of an issue. Let's look at Mr. Siksay's motion first, then, because it's clear it has a timeline to it.

I really think the most important thing is that we can't deal with the Internet without dealing with other digital platforms. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I've been studying this whole issue of digital platforms for about two years. I'm telling you now that you cannot separate the Internet from other digital platforms.

What you're doing is putting your foot in the water and getting your toe wet with a sock on, and the whole sock is wet, but you're still saying you're not going to look at the sock but are only going to look at your toe.

It really doesn't do it credit. It's going to waste a lot of the committee's time, just making work, and then we're going to have to go over it again. I just want to put that on the record. I'm not arguing with you; I just want that to be on the record.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I think what we have to do is look up what the motion says. We can bring it back next time; I don't have the motion in front of me. We can bring that motion up, because it might, the way the motion is addressed, just fit the bill for what you're talking about right now.

My suggestion is going to be, let's try.... Because Mr. Siksay's motion is time-sensitive to that point, I would suggest that we place it as a priority. Not only that; it's number one on the order paper. I leave it to my clerk to see whether she can.... I guess we're going to have to get....

Yes, Mr. Del Mastro?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

I'm supportive of that. If we have any difficulty lining up witnesses or making this happen, perhaps we could work in my motion in the meantime. It's not exhaustive. It's something that people could pull together relatively soon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Maybe what we could do is try to work Mr. Del Mastro's motion in on Thursday. Do you think we can try? What we'll do is try to get the witnesses here for Thursday. I know it's tough, but what we'll have to try to do for next Tuesday, right away, in the next day, is if you have people who you think should be on the list of witnesses, get them to our clerk, because we do need a full slate of witnesses to make things work. We could start that next Tuesday. We can see what we can do about the Shanghai exhibition, Mr. Del Mastro's motion, for Thursday. If we can get some people to come to that one, we'll notify everyone.

I'll go to Ms. Mourani first, then Mr. Coderre.

[Maria Mourani, Bloc, Ahuntsic, QC]

Mr. Chair, we could still meet with the CRTC about the Internet. They would be the first witness. We could add others afterwards. The motion clearly mentions discussing everything with the CRTC.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Chair, maybe it would be possible to arrange for the CRTC to come to address both Ms. Mourani's motion and also the one on the penalties. They could come and present to us on both. It would be a way of getting some basic information from them on both those studies, if they were available at some time. We could go with the Shanghai motion and try to get that one done this week. I suspect those folks are based here in Ottawa. If we gather witnesses around the CBC question, that will certainly get us under way.

Chair, it strikes me that we could really use a steering committee to do this kind of planning in a smaller group and bring back a recommendation about how the committee would proceed when it's made decisions about what issues it wants to study. In other committees I've been involved in, that's worked very effectively and has been helpful in organizing the work of the committee. I think it's been helpful to the committee chair in other instances as well. I really think it's something we should consider here. It's hard to make these kinds of decisions with the full committee.

It seems to me we've got a way forward, given what we've already passed this afternoon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I think we're going to stick with this. As a committee, we've decided we wouldn't have any steering committees; we would work as a whole committee. It's been part of the decision we made back at the beginning.

We'll go to Mr. Del Mastro and then to Mr. Coderre. Or have we already looked after you?

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

No. That's fine.

I was going to say that if we need a motion to the extent of what I had said, I'd be happy to put it forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

No. I think we can work around it.

Mr. Coderre.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

I propose that we see those people from the Shanghai exhibition. I would keep a last chunk of time, and then we will define what kind of agenda we want for Mr. Siksay's motion. At that time we can discuss hearings in Ottawa and define where we should go from there, so you can go to the Liaison Committee and define what kind of budget you will need. At that time it will be appropriate to have the discussion, because I hear there are people in different parts of the country who have something to say.

If we have the time, and with the agenda that we have to fulfill, I propose that we can have sober discussions about where we should go on that issue, whether we want to travel, and where. I suggest we should travel, but where? You will need some guidance when you represent us to the Liaison Committee. We should have that discussion on Thursday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Let's do that. We'll work on the Shanghai thing, and we'll see what we can do for some witnesses here for CBC Radio 2, to start that here next Tuesday.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Yes, but I'd like to have a discussion. It would take 15 to 20 minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We could do that on Thursday.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

We already had that debate. On Thursday we can discuss where we want to go. We can say we'll go to Vancouver, etc.

Thanks, Jim.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

We can work on it from there.

The meeting is adjourned.