Evidence of meeting #1 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
The chair will probably agree that the process here is that I read the motion that I would like to have unanimous consent for, and then they can decide whether or not they will give unanimous consent.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Okay, Madam Lavallée, I have your name, and I will allow you to speak in a second.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Mr. Martin, if you'd like to advise the committee of your motion and seek unanimous consent, please proceed.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mike doesn't even know. Maybe it was a motion that we give Mike a raise or something. You haven't seen this motion. The motion is that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics undertake a review of matters related to the Mulroney Airbus libel settlement, including any and all new evidence, testimony, and information not available at the time of the settlement, including but not limited to the circulation of correspondence from the Privy Council Office to the Prime Minister's Office, with particular emphasis on the correspondence sent by Karl Schreiber to the Prime Minister, so as to determine if there were violations of ethical or code of conduct standards by any public office holders, and to report to the House on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations.
I seek unanimous consent that we bypass the 24-hour notice rule to be able to entertain that motion today.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Are the members clear on the motion, and that the member is seeking unanimous consent to waive the notice requirement?
Is there unanimous consent?
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Then I'd like to table a notice of motion for consideration of that motion at the next committee meeting.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
You can do that electronically, or you can do it at any time directly to the clerk. That's certainly in order.
Thank you, Mr. Martin.
Madam Lavallée, I understand you have tabled a notice of motion with the clerk. Did you want to...?
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
No, it is not about this motion, but about what comes next.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Yes, I have several. I am going to start with the motion, but I would like to tell you at the outset that there are some other issues I would like to raise as well.
I'm going to start by talking about the motion I tabled a few minutes ago with the clerk, and I gave you a copy as well, Mr. Chairman. I'm requesting the same thing as Mr. Martin: to waive the 24-hour notice, and to request unanimous consent to discuss my motion.
The motion reads as follows:
Pursuant to Standing Order 108, the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics studied the circulation of correspondence from the Privy Council Office to the Prime Minister's Office, with particular emphasis on the correspondence sent by Karlheinz Schreiber to the Prime Minister, in order to determine whether Prime Minister Stephen Harper is right to claim that he was never made aware of the letter.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Thank you, Ms. Lavallée.
The member has advised the committee of a motion she'd like to make, and she is seeking unanimous consent of the committee to waive the required notice period.
Is there unanimous consent?
Conservative
Russ Hiebert Conservative South Surrey—White Rock—Cloverdale, BC
Well, in the spirit of motions, I would like to read my own motion for the committee's consent, and possibly its unanimous consent.
Mr. Chair, I would move that this committee commence a study whose purpose is a comprehensive review of the Privacy Act.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Okay.
If I may say—and this is probably a good segue—we obviously want to be productive with our time. There are only about eight or nine meetings before we rise for Christmas. We do have to have a work plan. We do have a steering committee that is going to have to consider the various items that have been before the committee and are still in process, or new items that have been referred to us. The estimates have been referred to us, we have the report of the Privacy Commissioner, we have a response on the PIPEDA recommendations, and the list goes on. It's quite a substantial list. We will not be able to deal with all of it before we rise for Christmas; I think the members are quite aware of that.
As a consequence, I'd like to suggest, with the concurrence of the committee, that we have a steering committee meeting next Tuesday. We have been provided with a binder that summarizes some of the items; it's not comprehensive, as there are some other items. Other members have strong views on matters that should be addressed by this committee and be prioritized, and that should be done before the steering committee gives consideration to making a recommendation to the whole committee.
So I've taken the liberty of having conversations with the Information Commissioner, the Privacy Commissioner, and the Ethics Commissioner yesterday and today, and have asked them to pencil this meeting in. So I'm asking the committee to consider the proposition that on Tuesday we will have those three commissioners come before us and have five minutes to propose their priorities to us and to encourage the committee to address matters they see as important, and also to have members recommend their priorities or suggestions to the committee next Tuesday from 11 o'clock forward. That meeting should go on for no longer than one hour, because it's just basically to get the laundry list out there and to have lobbying by members on their issues. The meeting will then adjourn and we will immediately convene a steering committee meeting to deal with all of the representations of the three commissioners, with all the members, and we will try our best as the steering committee to prioritize them in a manner reflective of the urgency and mandatory nature of certain items, like the estimates. So by our Thursday meeting, we will in fact be presenting to the whole committee a work plan for the balance of the year.
Now, having said that, Madame Lavallée.