Information & Ethics Committee on Nov. 8th, 2023

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I don't have time to ask a question and get a response, but I'm not prepared to cede it to the other side.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay. Thank you, Ms. Damoff.

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

I have a point to make, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay, go ahead.

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

There's been a request for a number of documents—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I was just going to address that, Mr. Brock. The clerk has been taking note with a time stamp of every request that's been made, so I was going to tell the witnesses that they will be receiving a follow-up email from the clerk on the documents that have been requested today. I'm going to ask that they return those documents one week from today, Wednesday, November 15 by 5 p.m.. I think that's fair and reasonable. Is that okay?

Mr. Brock, I still see your hand. Go ahead.

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

Mr. Chair, I just want to clarify the request that I made of Ms. Lawrence. She talked over me before I had a chance to fully explain what I wanted.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay, go ahead.

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

I want emails between her and the ISED ministry, the minister himself, the chief of staff, any other political operatives in the ministry, the PMO and PCO regarding her concerns about the employment of Ms. Verschuren as the board chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Mr. Brock. That provides clarification for the clerk as well, so I appreciate that.

I'm going to dismiss the witnesses, but before I do, I want to thank all of you for making yourselves available today.

Mr. McConnachie, Ms. Verschuren, Ms. Lawrence and Ms. Urie, thank you, and I'll dismiss you.

We still have some business to deal with, and that is the subcommittee business.

The subcommittee met on Monday to determine a course of action for the committee. I believe that all members have received the plan on what came out of the subcommittee. Are there any discussions on that? No?

I'm sorry; what was that, Matt?

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

This is just an observation, John, it's nothing personal.

I'm unclear why that was split up. My direction prior to leaving was very clear, and I'm unclear about the advantage of having them split up. I would just say that when we're creating this work plan, we're going to do it in good faith are going to hope that we can stick to the work plan and not have kind of any veto-type decisions to deviate from it without having a discussion in the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes, okay. I appreciate that, Matt.

Just another thing with respect to the subcommittee report, you'll notice in there that it's left that there may be some changes in that week of the 20th. We discussed that at subcommittee as well, so there may be one alteration to that date as discussed.

Go ahead, Pam.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

I was going to ask about that. I just have a question on that, Chair.

If we lose one meeting on the 20th or the 24th, does that mean an additional meeting would be added for the social media study, or will it just be lost? It wasn't clear from the—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes, I think, if I'm interpreting the discussion the other day correctly, it's that, if it is lost, we would pick it up at another time. We made it clear that there were going to be four meetings left on the social media study, and that is my intention, unless I'm missing something, Madam Clerk. No? Okay.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Then I guess I would just request, if we make it up, that it be done immediately after the other ones so we can just get this done.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes, it could be the week of the 27th, for example. Is that okay?

Did you have your hand up? No, okay.

Mr. Barrett, go ahead, and Monsieur Villemure just after that.

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

Are we still considering the subcommittee report, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes.

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

Reflecting on the urgency that's been expressed for four meetings on the social media study, I just want to see if you could canvass the room, Chair, for unanimous consent to have meetings and witness hearings on the social media study next week. It could be two three-hour meetings. It could three two-hour meetings, but I just want to put that forward. There are resources available. There's been an urgency expressed. It doesn't conflict with any of the other directions—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I don't have to canvass the room; I can see some heads shaking. I appreciate, Mr. Barrett, that you want to put some urgency to this study, but I don't think we have consent for that, but thank you.

Madame Fortier, go ahead.

[Mona Fortier, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Villemure is next to speak.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm sorry, Mr. Villemure. The floor is yours.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I was wondering if we were going to have a discussion on the report of the subcommittee on agenda and procedure that was sent to us today.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes, the subcommittee report is what we're discussing right now.

[René Villemure, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Okay, I missed a bit.