Canadian Heritage Committee on March 11th, 2010

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Richard Dupuis]

Good morning. I see a quorum. So I will move to the election of the chair. I am ready to receive nominations in that regard.

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

Can we nominate someone who is not here?

[The Clerk]

Yes, you can nominate a candidate in absentia.

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

I will nominate Mr. Schellenberger, who I have immense respect for. I'm not pleased that we're 15 minutes into a meeting and people are missing, but I will nominate him.

[The Clerk]

All in favour? Against?

I declare Mr. Schellenberger duly elected as the chair of the committee.

I will now move to the election of the two vice-chairs.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair shall be a member of the official opposition. So I am ready to receive motions in that regard.

Ms. Dhalla?

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I'd like to nominate Pablo Rodriguez as vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

Are there any other nominations?

All in favour? Against?

I declare Mr. Rodriguez duly elected vice-chair.

I will now move to the election of the second vice-chair, who shall be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

[Roger Pomerleau, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I nominate Mrs. Carole Lavallée.

[The Clerk]

Are there any other nominations?

All in favour? Against?

I declare Mrs. Carole Lavallée duly elected vice-chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I guess I'll start the meeting with an apology. Very seldom am I late. This morning, and right now, the Prime Minister is speaking. I was asked to be there. We left early. We were told it was going to be 20 minutes, but it was a little longer than that. So I do apologize for that.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

It was inspiring.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes, it was inspiring.

At the same time, I'd like to thank everyone so much for putting a little faith in me and re-electing me as chair.

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

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes.

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

Mr. Chair, I nominated you because I have great faith in you, but I don't think it's acceptable that you take time out from our committee to be in a camera shot with the parliamentary secretary or the Prime Minister. Our party leader is speaking momentarily and I'm here at my committee. By being late 16 minutes, business is interrupted.

I have to leave early today. I take my work here very seriously, so I count every minute that I'm here. In future--and I don't want to remonstrate with you in public, but I think it's important that we.... This is our committee. We put total faith in you. When it says 11, we start at 11.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay. I'll take the whipping.

On Wednesday March 3, 2010, the House of Commons adopted the following order:

That, for all standing committees, routine motions in effect at the time of prorogation of the previous session be deemed to have been adopted in the current session, provided that committees be empowered to alter or rescind such motions as they deem appropriate.

Accordingly, the routine motions that were in effect at the time of prorogation are reinstated. The clerk will reflect the House order in the minutes of the meeting. The committee can, if it chooses, amend any of these motions.

Finally, for information purposes, the clerk has distributed a copy of the motions to all committee members.

What I'd like to say here today, Mr. Angus, is that your leader is about to speak very shortly, and I know the Bloc is in the same position. I would suggest that we come back next Tuesday and decide the business of this committee.

Ms. Dhalla.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I agree with that. I just wanted to raise an issue. My legislative assistant is in a wheelchair and this room is completely inaccessible to him. He is unable to join us. Could I please request that when we book subsequent meetings the room be wheelchair accessible?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay, we'll work that out.

Mr. Angus.

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

Mr. Chair, we have a couple of various orders of business. Some are tying up loose ends from last session. Some are potential new business. The other is our digital strategy, which we've been sitting on in regard to moving forward.

I would like a special meeting where we talk about that. I'm assuming that we are moving forward with our digital strategy after telling the world we were. I would like a special meeting where, maybe in camera, we sit and talk about how we're going to arrange the witnesses and all of that. I think we need to be a little focused before we just plunge in. Can we try to work out amongst ourselves how the witnesses are going to be laid out and how we can start to see our way through this? Otherwise, this study could be the study with no end and no plan.

So if we deal with the outstanding business and the various motions at our next meeting, then we can focus on our witness list, perhaps as a special one-off meeting or however we do it, but we need the time to just go through that in a non-confrontational manner, I think.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I agree with you, Mr. Angus. I think the witness list has been distributed to everyone. We will do that.

Our next meeting, then, is on Tuesday.

The meeting is adjourned.