Information & Ethics Committee on Oct. 17th, 2022

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Last, did you have any with the parliamentary budget officer?

[Pierre Guay]

No.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you for confirming all that, Mr. Guay.

I would now like to come back to another question you were asked, this one by Ms. Khalid, that you were in the process of answering. It concerned the land you own. I imagine it has been owned by the Guay family for a long time, because I noted that on the northern boundary of your land there is Montée Guay. I imagine that is not a coincidence.

Can you tell us about that?

[Pierre Guay]

Yes.

My father was living on the farm and when he left the farm, he volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After returning from the war in 1975, he bought the land where we now are from his brother. As well, in the last 30 years, I have purchased approximately 225 acres of land along the border, adjacent to the Canada Border Services Agency border post. So our neighbours are customs, and we are here for our neighbours.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Thank you.

I can't finish without thanking your father, who served our country. Thanks to you as well, Mr. Guay, for agreeing to help the people seeking asylum in Canada.

Mr. Chair, I will yield the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Thank you. Now we go to Monsieur Lemieux for two and a half minutes.

Okay, he's passing. Go ahead, Mr. Green.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm going to move to adjourn the study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Okay, a motion is made to adjourn the study.

Is there discussion. No?

Are there any opposed to adjourning the study, if I understand your motion correctly?

Go ahead, Mr. Barrett.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Thanks very much, Chair.

There was good information from our witnesses today. I think there were questions raised with respect to different agencies that weren't here, but also there were some requests to folks for documents.

My concern with adjourning the study is on the reporting that's to happen following it. Is that still going to continue? Will a report be completed, and then will that be reported to the House, or is the committee dispensing with this issue? Is that the intent of the motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

I would have to ask, or I'll let the mover of the motion give clarification, because that's going to be up to the committee.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you.

It's an important procedural question, and I would suggest that there was material information here. From my perspective, there are some gaps in the process that I'd like more information on. They're going to provide us with that information.

My intention in adjourning the study was to wrap up the witnesses, the scheduling, get back to our business, allow that information to come in and then draft a brief report or a debrief on what we think happened based on the testimony that has been provided today.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Go ahead, Mr. Barrett.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Chair, through you, thanks to Mr. Green for that intent.

What we're looking at, then, is that the result would be to adjourn the meeting, and then the committee would decide whether or not to call any witnesses. Depending on how this motion goes, it seems that there would then not be any more witnesses called. The committee would then receive the evidence through the clerk, and then once we have the evidence that was requested, we could make a decision as a committee to provide drafting instructions.

Is that correct?

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Yes. I think, if I understand what the intent is, the committee will not ask for further witnesses and will receive the information that was requested. The committee can then decide what kind of report it wants to produce at a subsequent meeting.

Is there any further debate on the motion? Is anybody opposed to the motion?

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Just so we're clear, we're not adjourning the meeting, right? There's one point—

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Correct. We're not adjourning the meeting until I adjourn it, but we're getting pretty close to the time. If there's no opposition to the motion, the motion carries.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

With that, if there are no further questions for the witness, we'll conclude the witness portion of the meeting. I'm going to get this under the wire at our normal adjournment time, which I know members of the committee appreciate.

I'll just take a minute to thank the analysts for the very capable work that they do for us, as well as our clerk, and with that, the meeting—

Sorry. Go ahead.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I don't know how the process works, but I'm going to take this moment and thank you for the way that you've chaired this committee. I think you've done an outstanding job in a very non-partisan way, I have to say. As far as committees go, you did a fantastic job, and if a special dispensation could be made to make sure that you stay here indefinitely, I would certainly make that dispensation—

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

—but in a non-partisan way, I just want to thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

You're all too kind. I wasn't going to address the serious possibility that I may not chair further meetings of this committee, but anyway, I do appreciate that.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

They love you on the way in and the way out and in between.

[The Chair, Conservative, Pat Kelly]

Indeed, and with that, the meeting is adjourned.