Information & Ethics Committee on June 4th, 2026

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Unless my colleague agrees to remove Alberta and say all the provinces and territories, you can see why I feel an obligation to propose that Quebec be mentioned as well as Alberta, for equally valid reasons, I believe. I'll give you the option. It would be simpler to mention all the provinces and territories.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Each province and territory can be mentioned in the motion.

If we want to do that, then let's fill our boots; let's go. That way we solve the problem and deal with the problem.

Just so members are clear, part (c) of the motion will name every province and territory. Is that okay? Okay.

Now that we understand that, do we have an agreement on it?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

The motion passes.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

But we won't have everyone for two hours, will we?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

No, that's understood.

Let's get to an understanding of where we're at.

I want to bring the committee up to date with respect to the Lobbying Act. I've had some discussions with the clerk, and I'll get her to weigh in on this.

We are near the end of our witness list on the Lobbying Act. We have a meeting scheduled for Monday, when we have four witnesses coming in. Next week we have the Alto meeting with the Minister of Finance, and we also have the Ethics Commissioner. That will probably take us into the final week. I've asked the clerk to exhaust the witness list for the final week that we're scheduled to be here. She's in the process of doing this.

The lobbying commissioner has indicated to us—and we gave her this chance at the beginning—that she would come back after all of the testimony has been done. She has indicated to us that she would like the summer to digest the information that's been received from the witnesses and the briefs so that she can come back in September to conclude the lobbying study with any more information that she may be able to provide or anything else. That's where things are right now with the Lobbying Act.

The other thing is that the analysts are going to start working based on the information we've received on the Lobbying Act. They're going to start working on a draft report, but again, none of that will be concluded until we hear from the lobbying commissioner. That's where we're at with the Lobbying Act.

When we come back in September, I've made a commitment that we are going to deal with both the AI report and the access to information report. Both reports, as you know, have recommendations. There's not an equal number of recommendations, but they have recommendations, so I don't expect one will be easier than the other. We are going to deal, as a priority, with the AI report and then the access to information report.

I would like Madam Clerk to provide us with an update on where we're at with the witness list right now for the lobbying study. I think I've said everything I need to say.

Madam Clerk, can you provide us with where we're at right now and share that with the committee, please?

[The Clerk]

Yes, absolutely.

I have a copy of my table of witnesses. I invite committee members to come and see me after the meeting if they want details.

For our part, we've sent all the invitations to the witnesses. The vast majority of them have accepted the invitation and have appeared before the committee or will appear before the committee in the coming days. A small number of people declined the invitation or were not available at the time we invited them. Once again, that was in March and early April. Some people were not available. In the case of professors, for example, the date proposed was not always a good time. There are a few people we could invite again. Otherwise, all the other witnesses on the list have been invited, and the vast majority of them have appeared.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

What I've asked the clerk to do, for the last week that we're here, is tie some circles around some of the witnesses who have not yet appeared and ask them if they would consider appearing because they couldn't appear due to timing or whatever.

On the Privacy Act and the motion that was just passed, given the circumstances of where we'll be at in September, I don't expect that will happen until a much later date once we get through the AI and ATI reports.

That's my update.

Go ahead, Mr. Barrett.

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

Chair, I have what I think will be a very quick motion to dispense with. I move:

That, further to its statutory review of the Lobbying Act, the committee invite the President of the Treasury Board to appear before the committee for one hour with relevant Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat officials; and that Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat officials appear for an additional one hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Did you share that motion with the clerk?

[The Clerk]

I'm sharing it now.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

You did, in both languages.

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

It is possible that the version in the clerk's email is different.

[The Clerk]

We'll compare the two versions.

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

I expect that the version I've just presented verbally will be well received.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Barrett is moving a motion to invite the President of the Treasury Board for one hour in relation to the lobbying study and officials from the Treasury Board.

Have you named the officials in the motion or not?

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

No.

[The Clerk]

That's what I have. I don't know if that's exactly what he said.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

The motion that has now been shared with committee members states:

That, further to its statutory review of the Lobbying Act, the committee invite the President of the Treasury Board to appear before the committee for two hours; and the committee shall not proceed to drafting instructions for its report on its statutory review of the Lobbying Act until after the President of the Treasury Board appears.

We obviously won't be moving to drafting instructions until the lobbying commissioner appears in September.

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

If I may, Chair....

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes.

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

Based on conversations with colleagues, the version I provided to the clerk in both official languages is not the version I've just moved. There are substantive differences. The first is the request for the President of the Treasury Board to appear for one hour and for officials to appear for two hours. The instruction that drafting instructions not be undertaken until we've heard from the witnesses has been removed.

I'll say it one more time, if I may:

That, further to its statutory review of the Lobbying Act, the committee invite the President of the Treasury Board to appear before the committee for one hour with relevant Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat officials; and that Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat officials appear for an additional one hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I think that's fairly straightforward. I just want to see if there's consensus on it.

(Motion agreed to)

We have consensus, so we'll add that to the list.

Mr. Cooper, go ahead.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to move the following motion:

That the committee undertake a study of no fewer than six meetings into the $200-million agreement between the Department of National Defence and Maritime Launch Services concerning Spaceport Nova Scotia near Canso, Nova Scotia, and, for the purpose of this study, invite the following witnesses to appear:

a) The Honourable David McGuinty, Minister of National Defence;

b) The Honourable Steven MacKinnon, Minister of Transport and Leader of the Government in the House of Commons;

c) The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Finance and National Revenue;

d) The Honourable Sean Fraser, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency;

e) Stephen Matier, chief executive officer of Maritime Launch Services;

f) Sasha Jacob, chair of the board for Maritime Launch Services;

g) The Honourable Stephen McNeil, member of the advisory board for Maritime Launch Services and former Liberal premier of Nova Scotia;

h) Mike Greenley, chief executive officer of MDA Space;

i) Daniel Goldberg, chief executive officer of Telesat;

j) Liam Daly, former senior associate, federal government relations, at Sussex Strategy Group Inc.; and

k) Other witnesses as may be proposed by members of the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Is this the same motion you put on notice this morning?

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB]

Yes.