Evidence of meeting #2 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was going.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
As I said, this is not a trap motion or something that would make it much more difficult, but after the fact would probably be more difficult for your side.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Obviously, it's kind of new to everybody; not everybody, but some of the people on the committee.
Go ahead, Mr. Fast.
Conservative
Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC
I just want to confirm this is simply a notice of motion. We're not actually debating this motion today, correct?
NDP
Conservative
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
You'd want to take it away? Sure.
Another option, Chair, is when we reconvene on Thursday to take whatever time, like 15 minutes out of our schedule, to weigh the motion. It can go very quickly, and if it's obvious that the committee is not seized with this, then that goes very quickly as well.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
I'd like to make a suggestion. I think we have a pretty full agenda on Thursday based on what we've already talked about, and if people want to ask questions, we're going to run out of time. Tuesday might be not quite as heavily loaded with the audit and I wonder if we could give the time to do some research and potentially bring it forward and discuss it on Tuesday.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'd be fine with that if I could ask for a favour, then, in the meantime, just on the potential that the committee accepts it, because we're going to have a very short runway at that point if we wait another week. It's to have your staff contact some potential witnesses just to check their availability. It doesn't commit us to anything.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It's just that if we decide on Tuesday and then start calling potential witnesses, which wouldn't be until Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday morning, then we'd get a very sparse chance.
Liberal
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Typically, for something like this, all parties would contribute some ideas for witnesses.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I'm happy to be totally public with other members on the committee with some of the witnesses we would line up. We would seek the non-controversial ones that can speak with authority, one of them being the Nuclear Safety Commission, of course, because they're the ones handling the file.
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Maybe a couple of mayors on our side, maybe teleconferencing a couple of folks on the U.S. side, that would be the range of what we're thinking about right now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte
Let's just be clear. The motion is not officially on the table. Maybe what we could do is by Thursday if people could let me know who they might consider bringing forward as witnesses, if we were to be seized with this matter—
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
It obligates us to nothing and I would suggest, through you to your staff, that we've done these invites before. We say the committee is considering this, and would they be willing to present for seven minutes, and it may not happen, that kind of thing.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
To that end, because I only really heard Mr. Cullen speak of mayors in communities, would the idea be to have some experts on this particular topic that could answer real questions about safety implications as opposed to just political mayors?
NDP
Nathan Cullen NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Were you about to say “just mayors”, Mark? We are in public, sir.