Evidence of meeting #6 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Isabelle Jacques  Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Barry MacKillop  Deputy Director, Intelligence, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Claude Carignan  Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Joint Chair  Hon. Gwen Boniface (Senator, Ontario, ISG)
Donna Achimov  Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada
Peter Harder  Senator, Ontario, PSG
Julien Brazeau  Director General, Financial Crimes and Security Division, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance
Vernon White  Senator, Ontario, C
Joint Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Miriam Burke

9:20 p.m.

Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C

9:20 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

Thank you very much, Senator Carignan. I'll take back the chair.

9:20 p.m.

Bloc

The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin

I'm giving the chair back to you, Mr. Chair.

9:20 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

Thank you very much for so graciously covering me there.

We have now concluded that round. We have five minutes left.

9:20 p.m.

Bloc

The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order before we release the witnesses.

9:20 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

I would certainly be willing to—

9:20 p.m.

Bloc

The Joint Chair Bloc Rhéal Fortin

Mr. Chair, I know that Senator Carignan also asked a question about this, but I simply wanted to remind Ms. Jacques of what I had asked her for, which was to send me a copy of the reports in question. She told us the that she had received about six from financial institutions and that she was going to check whether she was authorized to do so.

If Ms. Jacques can't send us the reports, let''s say by next week, I would ask her to confirm in writing that she was not authorized to do so and tell us, if that turns out to be the case, who refused the authorization, so that we can decide whether or not to follow up on this matter.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

Okay. I believe Ms. Jacques heard that. I'm unclear in terms of where to put it as a point of order. It's direction that you provided in your testimony. They will do with it as they ought to do.

At this point, that concludes the round of questioning for the witnesses.

We will now, to the best of our ability, try to deal with where we left off at the last meeting, which was a motion that directed us to have this meeting with these witnesses. However, despite our debate, what was actually passed at the last meeting was not a full schedule and commitment because there was still the question around committee business.

I guess what we're contemplating now is the scheduling for our next meeting and of any other witnesses.

I will recognize Senator Boniface.

9:25 p.m.

Gwen Boniface

I understand that we may have some potential witnesses for next week. I'm wondering if the clerk can confirm their availability.

I'm wondering if it would be best to hear those witnesses and then set aside the following week, because with those witnesses, some of the testimony attaches back to what we heard from the two ministers. It's just a suggestion.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

The suggestion is noted.

For the purpose and the clarity of the committee, I'll ask, Madam Clerk, if you could indicate if there's any potential availability.

9:25 p.m.

Gwen Boniface

Out of courtesy, maybe we can release the witnesses who are here.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

Certainly.

Thank you very much to the witnesses.

Again, please don't mistake some of our terseness as anything personal. We appreciate your being here before us tonight and certainly look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you.

May 3rd, 2022 / 9:25 p.m.

Assistant Deputy Minister, Financial Sector Policy Branch, Department of Finance

Isabelle Jacques

Thank you. Have a good evening.

9:25 p.m.

Deputy Director, Chief Compliance Officer, Compliance Sector, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada

Donna Achimov

Thank you. Good evening.

9:25 p.m.

Deputy Director, Intelligence, Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada

Barry MacKillop

Have a good evening.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

Madam Clerk, could you comment on the availability of potential witnesses for the next meeting?

9:25 p.m.

The Joint Clerk of the Committee Ms. Miriam Burke

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I can't comment with full certitude on availability, but I believe that within the groupings you discussed last week, we could find at least one of those groups of the two or three organizations to make themselves available for next week.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

I'm going to recognize the speakers list as Motz, Bendayan and Brock.

First of all, Senator Boniface, does that satisfy your question?

9:25 p.m.

Gwen Boniface

I wonder if we can clarify what groups we're talking about. I believe one of them is the RCMP. If I'm wrong, please correct me.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON

That was my question.

9:25 p.m.

The Clerk

Yes, it is.

9:25 p.m.

NDP

The Joint Chair NDP Matthew Green

We will now go on to Mr. Motz.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Thank you very much, Chair.

I have a couple of things.

First, Madam Clerk, we don't have clarity on who is going to be here. No one has committed to next week yet, have they?

9:25 p.m.

The Joint Clerk Ms. Miriam Burke

That's correct, but only because we haven't confirmed anybody for next week.

9:25 p.m.

Conservative

Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB

Right.

For this week, we had the finance department, and Mr. Green, I think that you alluded to it. These individuals obviously were financial sector policy branch. The finance department writes our budgets, for Pete's sake. They were not the relevant witnesses to answer the questions related to the economic impact. In fairness to Ms. Jacques, that is not their forte. That's not their area.

We obviously need additional witnesses from finance—clearly we do. We also need some clarity around....

The clerk who was trying to get witnesses for this week obviously contacted as many as he could, and when he found a stream who were able to attend, I'm sure he pursued them with a bit more vigour. We really don't know who's available next week, if anyone.

As a committee, we should keep in mind that we still have a number of issues of committee business that we need to deal with. As much as we'd like to get at the witnesses, we also need to finish some other issues. If we can't find any witnesses for next week, save maybe one organization for the hour and a half, I would suggest that we set aside the other portion of the committee for committee business.