Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 13th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Go ahead, Martin.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Madam Chair, we evidently do not have time for a new round of questions with our witnesses. It would therefore be polite of us to release them and thank them for being generous with their time today with us. We can then continue the discussions about the motion and the amendment.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, we only have 20 minutes left and this might go on for a while.

I would like to thank the witnesses for coming. I'm sorry that your testimony was cut short. You may leave anytime you like.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mrs. Thomas, you had the floor when asking for the suspension.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I'm okay with proceeding to the vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

All right.

Is there any further discussion?

I will call the vote on the amendment.

(Amendment negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

We shall move now to the motion. Is there any further discussion on the motion?

Yes, Martin.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I have a concern about the motion, Madam Chair, and I would just like to get a clarification.

Concerning the study we are currently doing, there have to be three meetings between now and the end of February. The last time we discussed the timetable, the February 29 meeting was to be devoted to training for committee members. Today's Liberal motion is asking that this meeting with the Bell people be held before March 1. I would therefore like the clerk to tell us whether that fits into the timetable.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Martin, if you recall, we were going to do your media study for four meetings. You cut one out, so that's only three. That may buy us time so we don't change the whole thing, except maybe to get that to be the extra meeting, if everyone is in agreement. That would be the change, basically.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

So the meeting with the Bell representatives would be held on February 29, to abide by the motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, it would have to be.

[Martin Champoux, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

That's perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

It gives the clerk time to call the witnesses in.

All right. I shall call the vote on the motion as presented.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 7; nays 0)

The motion carries. We will be bringing that meeting, that two hours, on February 29.

The witnesses have left. We have one thing to bring to you. We have 10 minutes left, guys.

The clerk was going to bring us back a travel itinerary with the costs attached to it. I just want to remind everybody that we need you to say yea or nay, because it has to go to the Liaison Committee soon.

What I'm going to put to you before the clerk presents it is simply this. You've heard everybody say that we have to start talking to ordinary Canadians in this country. That's what this is about.

Go ahead, Clerk. Have you distributed anything for us yet?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Geneviève Desjardins]

I have distributed a proposed itinerary. The budget is not complete yet. We're still waiting for quotes, but just to give an idea to committee members of the different locations, we did distribute a copy. I have hard copies for those who prefer to have paper.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, please. I'd like a hard copy.

Is there any discussion? Do you want to take time to read it quickly? I'm not going to suspend. I'll just give you three minutes or two minutes to read it—or even one minute to read it.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

As you can see, it would be in the spring of 2024, and you have a western travel itinerary and an eastern travel itinerary.

The clerk would like to clarify some of the information you received.

Go ahead, Geneviève.

[The Clerk]

Just to clarify, because there were many locations since it is across Canada, we were looking at non-sitting weeks. The budget was split in two: east and west. That's why you have two budgets. It would be on two non-consecutive weeks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

As you can see on the itinerary, we're not only going to big cities, because one of the things we're trying to find out is what people in suburban and rural areas think. What are their comments? What do they have to tell us about what's going on in their regions with regard to access to news, culture, hearing their own stories and understanding what's going on in the rest of Canada?

Mrs. Thomas, I think we're going to your part of the world as proposed—Lethbridge.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I'm sorry, but just for further clarification, then, the proposal on the table is that about half a million dollars would be spent on travelling within Canada by this committee in order to look at the diversity of Canada's culture, arts and heritage. Is that correct?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

What would be the hoped outcome or the desired outcome?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

The hoped outcome is going to be exactly what a lot of people pointed out in this meeting today: that we listen to ordinary Canadians. We hear from organizations, groups, unions and industry, and we don't hear from Joe Schmo in our part of the world, who is saying, “This is what's going on. This is what we're thinking. This is how we're feeling. We don't think that we get a piece of the action. We don't think we're getting the news. We are not getting access.”

Rachael, I'm sorry, but have you finished?

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I'm seeing this for the first time. What would assure me that we are hearing from ordinary Canadians during this tour?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

We would not hold a standard meeting where we bring in witnesses. There are different ways to do this.

We could have a round table, where people come in and it's like a town hall meeting. People stand up and we'll hear from them. We ask questions of the ordinary people in the room. That's one way we could do it. Another way we've done this in the past is to invite groups and people who say they want to come. We could publicize it. People might say they want to come.

A more efficient way to do it is kind of like a town hall.

Go ahead, Jacques.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lévis—Lotbinière, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I am still rather surprised at the cost. That said, the leader of the New Democratic Party announced today that he would undoubtedly be withdrawing from the agreement to support the Liberals. So we could find ourselves in an election campaign in the spring. I do not agree with incurring half a million dollars in expenses if we then do not make the trip. I would prefer that we not buy airline tickets in advance and then ask Canadians to pay for a trip that doesn't happen. So I am voting against this trip.