Evidence of meeting #65 for Canadian Heritage in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
We'll start our meeting.
Welcome to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. This is an in camera meeting on committee business.
[Pursuant to a motion passed by the committee on June 5, 2013, the following proceedings are now public.]
We had been going through the witness list. We have a number of approved witnesses.
Mr. Calandra.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Since we just passed Bill C-49, I wonder if we could talk about that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Believe it or not, I was just getting to that. Since Bill C-49 just passed, I thought maybe we should discuss how we want to handle that as a committee.
Mr. Calandra, do you want to speak to that?
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Yes. I know how crushed my colleagues across will be, but maybe we could delay some of the study on history and deal with the bill that was referred to us. I'm not sure what the opposition have in mind with respect to timing on this, but perhaps Monday we could come in with a list of potential witnesses specific to Bill C-49.
I know the minister said he would be available next Wednesday, and he will bring with him Mr. O'Neill of the Museum of Civilization. They will be available for the full two hours. If that meets with the approval of everyone, then we could perhaps have another meeting on the Monday and move to clause-by-clause on the following Wednesday.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Mr. Calandra is suggesting for next week that we discuss witnesses for this study on Monday, that the minister appear for the full two hours on Wednesday, and that for the following week we have more witnesses on June 10 and go to clause-by-clause on Wednesday, June 12.
Is there any discussion?
Madame Boutin-Sweet.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
That means that we should bring our list of witnesses to Monday's meeting. We don't need to submit it beforehand. Is that right?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
That's fine, yes.
We will proceed, then, in that fashion for the next four meetings.
Do we want to continue our discussion on witnesses?
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Okay. We will do that.
(Motion agreed to)
On the witness list for our study, is there any discussion?
NDP
Matthew Dubé NDP Chambly—Borduas, QC
Excuse me. I have a question. Monday we'll have the witnesses for Bill C-49, right?
NDP
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Please bring the names of your witnesses on Monday. I would suggest getting them in to the clerk even before that, if you want. We will discuss witnesses on Monday. On Wednesday we will have Minister Moore and representatives from the Museum of Civilization for two hours. On Monday, June 10, we will hear from witnesses, and on Wednesday, June 12, we will do clause-by-clause for Bill C-49.
Is that clear to everybody?
Madame Boutin-Sweet.
NDP
Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet NDP Hochelaga, QC
Will the meeting with the minister and Mr. O'Neill be televised? I would like it to be.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
It's up to the committee. If we want to have a televised meeting on Wednesday with the minister, we can try to arrange that, if possible. That would require us to be in a different room.
Are you suggesting that?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
Okay. Madame Boutin-Sweet would like Wednesday's meeting with the minister to be televised.
Is there any discussion? Would we like to do that?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
The clerk will endeavour to get us a room, maybe in Centre Block, if it's available for Wednesday. If not, it would be Wellington.
For our study on Canadian history, there are two lists in front of you. One is the witnesses approved at our last committee meeting; the other is those pending decision.
The clerk would like to explain something with regard to the two lists.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Christine Holke David
For the pending list, you'll see that I left in the ministers of education. Also there are some former parliamentarians. I didn't know if you wanted them completely stricken from the list or if you wanted to come back to them eventually.
This is a pending list for the whole study, so you can let me know if you want to strike them off. That will be a committee decision. Please let me know if you want me to do that, just so there is no confusion. Some have already told me that we've already made a decision, but for me the decision wasn't made to completely strike them off. It was just that for now we weren't approving them, but we might come back to them. I just wanted to clarify that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Moore
That was certainly my understanding, that we were reserving the ability to call those witnesses, but for now there wouldn't be any ministers of education or former or current parliamentarians invited.
That's subject, of course, to the will of the committee.
The Clerk
There's just one other thing. You'll see that some are struck off. The office of Mr. Simms asked me to take them off just for the purpose of discussion right away. So I struck them off, but it's the same thing; they're still there in case you want to come back to them at one point.
Conservative