Canadian Heritage Committee on April 4th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

At the moment, I think that would be a discussion. Right now, we have to pass the motion. We don't have to pass the motion if we want to study it.... We are just going to pass a motion so that we can get on with the analysts looking at the scope and doing all these kinds of things.

Can we vote on the motion?

As I said to Mr. Anderson, we can discuss the scope of the motion in another meeting. Today we just want to pass the motion as amended.

Those in favour of the motion as amended?

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Good. That's that.

We will get to discussing the scope, etc., at another meeting. In the meantime, there is some other business we need to attend to.

As you know, we had passed a motion from Monsieur Nantel that we ask the minister to come and present on the main estimates. We have until May 31 to report to the House, so we need to bring the minister in prior to that.

The minister responded to the letter I wrote on behalf of the committee. She said that she has a conflict regarding any appearance on a Tuesday or a Thursday between now and May 31 because of her timelines. She is asking whether we would consider meeting as a committee on Wednesday, May 10, or Wednesday, May 17, between 12 noon and one o'clock. It would be a one-hour meeting to do the estimates.

I need you to think about that. The minister is suggesting that Tuesdays and Thursdays are already booked for her between now and May 31, but she could look at Wednesday, May 10, from noon to one o'clock, or Wednesday, May 17, from noon to one o'clock.

Can I have some discussion on this? Or will I just pick a day and ask people to support it?

Mr. Nantel, do you have something to say about this?

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

I have to check my agenda.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Maguire, since you're the usual person on this committee, do you have anything to speak to on this?

[Darrell Samson, Liberal, Sackville—Preston—Chezzetcook, NS]

Are we going to let him back in?

[An hon. member]

No.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We would have to consider that. Is your motion to exclude Mr. Maguire...?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Would you prefer May 10 or May 17?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

May 10.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, that would be my suggestion. Just pick May 10.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Waugh is suggesting that we meet May 10, from noon until one o'clock. Does anyone disagree with that timeline? I seem to be getting consensus around the room. Nobody is lifting a hand to speak.

[An hon. member]

We are agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We will agree, then, and I will ask the clerk to let the minister know that on Wednesday, May 10, from 12 noon until 1 p.m., we will hear the minister on the main estimates.

Good. That's another piece of business put to rest.

I would like to suggest, since we've passed a motion for the study, that we now spend the next few meetings to hopefully finish this media study. We've gone page by page, clause by clause, and line by line on this already. I know where we stopped and where we will move to if we want to finish our study so that we can put it to bed.

Mr. Waugh.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Madam Chair, I have a proposal that you're probably not going to like.

Since we didn't meet our target of February, when we were going to have this report out on media and communities, my suggestion would be this. Mr. Reid did bring up a good point, that motion 103 was very important in the House, and the media did grab it. There has been a lot going on in the last couple of months with the media, and there will be more in the coming months.

I'm wondering if we could move instead to motion 103 right away and delay our media and communities, because we've lost.

[An hon. member]

Wow.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

We've lost. We can go into motion 103 now, study it hard until the end of June, and do our report in June on motion 103. That would give us at least 10 meetings. We have 14 that we've talked about, from now until the end of June, so we could really study motion 103.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Order, please.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

It's a suggestion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Waugh is making a suggestion. May I have feedback?

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

It's a suggestion. We have kicked the can here for so long on media.

I don't get the questions that you get on media anymore. We've wasted our window of opportunity. I'm saying that now we move on, do motion 103, and come back to media and communities in the fall.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I would like to clarify, though, Mr. Waugh. There's not a day that goes by that everybody is not waiting for this.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Well, I know that in Vancouver—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I think they think we don't want to do it.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Yes, I know—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

I think they think it's difficult for us.