Declaration of Emergency Committee on Sept. 29th, 2022

[An hon. member]

I might go with that.

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair]

Okay. With that being done, and before you leave, Mr. Virani, it's a good opportunity in this moment right now, if I could. If there's ever an argument to maintain the Senate, it's the calibre of senators like Mr. Vern White. I want to take this moment on behalf of the committee to thank you for your service.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair]

That is on the record and not in camera.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Mr. Virani wanted to give you the opportunity. For anybody who has had the opportunity to get to know Vern, it has been an absolute pleasure.

The richness and fullness that you brought in your questioning was to the benefit of all Canadians across the country. I thank you for your service. I know it's a thankless job and I wish you all the best in your next endeavours.

There is no meeting Monday. We're going to celebrate Vern on Monday—just kidding.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

Just to clarify before we go, do we have witnesses lined up for Thursday, or are you working on that?

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

We're working on it.

[Larry Brock, Conservative, Brantford—Brant, ON]

You're working on it slowly. Okay.

[The Joint Chair, Bloc, Rhéal Fortin]

Before we go, I want to mention something.

Today, I made a request to the clerks, Mr. Palmer and Ms. Burke. I think the documents in the digital binder should be identified more clearly. Obviously, it's not the clerks' fault, but I would love it if there was a better way to identify documents. I'm referring to things like indicating the date of submission, document type, the name of the person who submitted it and the time it was submitted. That would make it easier for us to work with the lists. Otherwise, it's really tough to establish the connection to a document when it is labelled simply as “Document,” even though it's a letter, an email or a report.

I'm curious as to whether the members of the committee are finding it as hard as I am to work with the documents. Am I the only one? Do the committee members think the documents should be identified more clearly so that we can make the necessary connections?

We can ask the people producing the documents to do it. Right now, we've received more documents. We already had some thousand pages, and we are receiving more documentation from the same organizations, like the Canada Border Services Agency. It's important to tie them together. Do the newly received documents represent changes to the previous ones, or are they altogether new documents?

I think the people producing the documents should be responsible for reconciling them and sending only one version. That would make everybody's job easier.

The last thing I wanted to talk about was redacted documents, which we talked about last week. I think redactions should be accompanied by explanations. I'm not sure where the committee stands, but I think the people producing the documents should have to provide them unredacted, and when that's not possible, they should have to explain each redaction. That way, we could determine whether the redaction was appropriate or not. Otherwise, it's a free-for-all.

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

We have Senator Carignan, recognizing that the time is beyond our allotted time.

Senator Carignan, we do have.... We will open it up for you.

[Claude Carignan]

I agree with Mr. Fortin.

Were the thousand or so pages that were supposed to appear on the committee's website posted? If not, when will that be done?

Even if they're not up on the site yet, are the documents in the public domain?

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

I just want to reference for members the volume of information that our clerks are having to deal with. They are working through it and they're hoping to have it in due course, but this is a pretty serious undertaking. I don't know that we have the administrative resources to keep up with just the volume of things that we're requesting.

Go ahead, Mr. Motz.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Mr. Chair, this is just to go along with Mr. Fortin's comments about redactions and the reasons behind redactions.

Mr. Brock, Senator White and I know from court experience that when you do redactions, especially in the drug world, you have to give explanations for every redaction you have on every document you submit. Usually a template goes with it explaining that, for example, redaction A was for these reasons, and A is standard—

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

Mr. Motz, I want to reference that I think that's something that you or somebody had sought to remedy via a motion. I think at the appropriate time we can deal with that motion and have that debate. I just don't think it's the time right now.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Yes. I know that you want to get going, but I'd just like to sit and chat. My flight has been delayed, so it's all good.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Joint Chair, NDP, Matthew Green]

We're trying to get Senator White off the hook here. He's been on the clock and he's 15 minutes over time.

Thank you to the interpreters and the staff who worked through technical difficulties. Thank you very much.

The meeting is adjourned.