Evidence of meeting #37 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Canada Post Corporation
Well, stated frankly, that is my concern: that this could become a backdoor method for people to get stamps issued and I just wonder if that's really the wisest use of the time of parliamentarians time or the best way to go about it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you very much.
I'm going to lead off with Mr. Del Mastro, and Mr. Gourde, I think, is going to share his time.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Yes. I'm going to share my time with Mr. Gourde.
Thank you both for appearing today. Put me down as being pro the Charlie Angus-Jack Munroe stamp. I apologize, but that's a stamp I'd love to collect, not that I have a vote.
You raised a very important issue and that is the manipulation of Canada Post for political purposes. Frankly, I think we could get into a real problem, especially if we had a majority government in Canada, with all kinds of orders, requests, and suggestions for stamps that could manipulate the process.
You have a non-manipulated, non-partisan, independent approval process right now that's independent or at arm's length from government, and I assume you'd like to keep it that way.
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Canada Post Corporation
Absolutely. In fact, frankly, if it changed in the way you're describing, I would not be all that interested in being chairman of the stamp advisory committee, because to me that would be such a radical change that it would render the stamp advisory committee somewhat meaningless.
Conservative
Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I have a question for Mr. Waite.
How many requests does your advisory committee normally get in a year, and how many of them are normally accepted?
You mentioned various processes: the first selection stage, then the second, and maybe a third.
Can you explain that to me a little more?
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Canada Post Corporation
Sure. We get about 500 to 600 requests per year. I see all of them and the staff sees all of them. We list all of them for the committee members, so they see everything. Some of the requests, though, are either inappropriate or just don't make a lot of sense to pursue.
Two years ago, we had one that was looking for a stamp depicting a future prime minister from the youth of Canada. We weren't quite sure how we would do that. I'm sure there were parents out there who may have had some candidates for such a position, but we decided not to do a lot of work on that one.
Typically it gets winnowed down to perhaps 50 or 60 topics from which we need to pick 20. Frankly, it becomes very difficult, because again, there's the balancing act of wanting to have regional diversity. When we did recording artists, we wanted to be sure that we honoured francophone recording artists as well as English Canadian artists, which we did, so there are a lot of things to keep in mind.
We do pay special attention if it's a big anniversary for something. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy. Why would we have chosen that topic? Well, it's an important institution, but also we know from past experience that stamps depicting naval vessels are actually highly prized by collectors around the world.
There's an interesting balancing act in terms of selection. We look at those 40 to 60 topics really hard, bring them back, and have debates. The meetings last all day, and it can be quite heated sometimes. Like Mr. Angus, we sometimes have very strong advocates for particular--
Senior Vice-President, Corporate Social Responsibility, Canada Post Corporation
We have no politicians on our committee—sorry—by design. They're Canadian citizens with expertise in history, for example, or design. There's a woman who's a professor with expertise in women's issues and aboriginal issues, for example.
That's the process. It's very robust. It's time-tested--over more than 40 years. It became necessary because we started producing commemorative stamps in Canada in the late 1950s or early 1960s. By 1969, the postmaster general felt overwhelmed, because he was making the decisions himself. He was getting, presumably, some pressure from somewhere, so he wanted to put it off to the side.
I think it's a good system. Is it a perfect system? No. I mean, we're people trying to do the best we can, but it's pretty robust.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you very much for answering the questions that were asked here today. I apologize wholeheartedly for being late by a half an hour or better in starting our meeting.
We will recess for a short time. We'll try to keep it within five minutes so that we can get to our next witnesses.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
I'm going to call the meeting back to order, please.
I welcome our next witnesses, the National Federation of Canadian Italian Business and Professional Associations, and the Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee.
I would ask that you introduce yourselves, please. We're very pleased to have you here today.
The meeting will be over at one o'clock. If we can keep our comments fairly short, that would be great. We'll do as many rounds of questions as we can.
We'll begin with the National Federation of Canadian Italian Business and Professional Associations.
Frank Moceri President, National Federation of Canadian Italian Business and Professional Associations
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to thank the committee for inviting the national federation to this meeting.
I'd like to take a couple of minutes to highlight what the national federation's objectives are. They are to promote and foster recreational, cultural, social, artistic, charitable, business, and professional activities in the Canadian Italian community in Canada.
We are an apolitical group. We have many chapters across Canada as well. We're here to support Bill C-302.
Our presentation is probably very short. CIBPA has always been in the forefront of the redress campaign for our Italian Canadian community. It started two full years before the National Congress of Italian Canadians and it teamed up with the national congress in 1990, along with the CIAO, for the generations' attempts to get justice and fair settlements.
Our main objective is to take part in the negotiation process for Bill C-302.
Sal Mariani has been the past president for the last three years. He's here with me to help answer any questions. I'm the current president.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry, but I missed the last sentence. He wants...?
President, National Federation of Canadian Italian Business and Professional Associations
We want to take part in the negotiation process.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Okay.
The Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee is next, please.
Pal Di Iulio Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
Thank you.
Good morning.
My name is Pal Di Iulio. I'm the chair of the Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee for the Community Historical Recognition Program. As you may know, that is part of Heritage Canada.
We've been asked to serve, at the pleasure of the minister, to help encourage applications to CHRP, to help process the applications, and ultimately to recommend through parallel bureaucracy to the minister applications that come from the Italian Canadian community to promote, to recognize, and to celebrate activities--the good ones and sometimes not the good ones--in Canadian history. This is what we do.
Mr. Perin is the vice-chair. Mr. Papa is a member. I'm from Toronto. Mr. Papa's from Montreal. Mr. Perin is from both Montreal and Toronto. We're the only three members to date.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
Thank you.
You may ask your first question, Mr. Rodriguez.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
Thank you.
Buon giorno. Grazie di essere fra noi oggi.
Thanks for being here.
Mr. Di Iulio, do you support the bill or not? I didn't hear you.
Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
You heard very correctly. We are here at the pleasure of the minister; we're not here to support or not support. We've been asked to do a job.
I, with a 35-year history of Italian Canadian community development in Toronto, have been asked to promote and help CHRP through that process. I'm not here to support or not support. I'm here to do the job that we've been asked to do.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
So are you, in a way, representing the minister or the department?
Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
No, I don't represent the minister.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
But you're named by the minister and you're working...advising them?
Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
We were appointed or asked to participate by the minister. Yes, sir.
Dr. Roberto Perin Vice-Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
I could perhaps add that officials from the Department of Canadian Heritage attend our meetings and communicate our decisions to the minister.
