Information & Ethics Committee on June 4th, 2026

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

We're going to make them feel very special.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Yes.

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

I like that for them.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Let's do it.

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

Let's keep it.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Ms. Lapointe, you have the floor.

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

Item (c) says, “Information and Privacy Commissioner of Alberta for two hours”. Does that mean that everyone would appear for two hours? If we're trying to have three witnesses at the same time, I think two hours is too much. We can invite all three of them, but if we don't remove the words “for two hours”, does that mean we'll have everyone for two hours?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

As I understand it, the idea is to invite the three witnesses for one hour each, for each group of witnesses.

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

That's right, but we just need to amend item (c).

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

If all members agree to eliminate “for two hours”, we can do that. It is agreed among us that all three witnesses will appear for only one hour each, for each group of witnesses.

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

I think that would be reasonable, but the words “for two hours” should be removed. Otherwise, we're going to be here all fall.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

Where are we? Are we on the amendment, or are we on the main motion as amended?

[The Clerk]

There seems to be agreement.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay. There's agreement.

[The Clerk]

I don't want to assume.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I'm going to assume that there's agreement on the amendment.

(Amendment agreed to)

Do you want to name Quebec too, Gabriel?

Mr. Bonin, do you want us to invite the Quebec commissioner as well? I would really like us to invite the one from Ontario as well.

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

We could mention all the provinces and territories.

[Gabriel Hardy, Conservative, Montmorency—Charlevoix, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Here we go. We are going to vote on the main motion, with the understanding among us all on where we're at with this.

Do we have consensus on the main motion?

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Mr. Chair, can you just clarify this? Is it the same motion? Did we keep the reference to Alberta, but remove the words “for two hours”, or are we saying all the provinces and territories now rather than just Alberta?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Ms. Chagger wants Alberta to be mentioned. We're going to mention all the commissioners in every province and territory. As I understand it, all the commissioners will testify for only one hour, and there will be three commissioners per group of witnesses.

Is that clear?

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

I understand the need to mention Alberta, based on the rationale of my colleague who moved the original motion. Quebec also has some unique features though that are of interest to the committee. So I don't see why Alberta should be mentioned but not Quebec.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Bonin, I don't think we should mention any of the provinces, but that's what Ms. Chagger wants. That's where we are right now.

[Patrick Bonin, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

If you want to remove the reference to Alberta and simply say all the commissioners from all the provinces and territories, you can propose an amendment to that effect.