Evidence of meeting #40 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was immigration.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Again to address this, I will go back to the chair of the immigration committee to see whether they've accelerated their timeline on it.
Mr. Del Mastro.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Mr. Chair, I'd ask that you consider setting additional meetings for the committee and extending the hours of the committee so that we can get through this. I think, quite frankly, we know that last year was nip and tuck for getting the budget done before the deadline. We all are mindful of the deadline.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
What a piece of work.
My point, Mr. Chair, is that last year the Senate had to sit extremely long hours to make the deadline to get royal assent for the budget. This budget was brought forward in February. There is no reason why at the end of June we should still be forcing the Senate to sit into extended hours and be at nip and tuck, holding our breath, hoping it makes the deadline.
Let's schedule extra meetings. If they want to have a joint meeting with immigration, maybe we should consider that, so that we can satisfy all the various concerns of the members. But let's get our work done. I'm prepared to work as much as necessary to get this done by next week.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
I just need a clarification. There are 60 witnesses on the list. We will ask every one of those to come, but we'll be sitting late into the evenings and we'll be having it done before next Wednesday, if that's the intent of this committee.
12:40 p.m.
Some hon. members
No, no.
12:40 p.m.
Conservative
12:40 p.m.
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
No, we never said that we had to accelerate things. Someone just made that up.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Chairman, again...and I've had my hand up for a while.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Yes, you have. Okay, go ahead, and then we'll go to Mr. Menzies.
12:45 p.m.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I have to share my experience with the rest of the committee members here. We issued a letter, or we passed a motion, and that has to have some type of credibility. We're going to lose all credibility. If we asked the immigration committee to study this bill and report back, we have to respect our decision.
If you're willing to speak to the chair, I have no problem with that, and at that point we'll discuss it. We'll just take another 15 minutes on Wednesday before or after our committee meeting to re-discuss this, and at that point we'll decide whether we should go into long hours.
I think everybody around this table is aware of the fact that we could add additional meetings, but just to give some background to Mr. Del Mastro, the budget bill at every Parliament goes to the last second, because the government is slow and dragging their feet.
If we decide to do clause-by-clause the first day we get back, this could be into the House the day after—I think it's the 26th or the 27th—and we're not going to be saving any additional time.
So there's no problem in timing, but I think in terms of credibility we have to respect the motion this committee passed. That's the least we have to do.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Let's see what the chair of the immigration committee has to report back to me, and we'll try to respect it and deal with it on Wednesday. I think that's fair ball.
Mr. Menzies.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I'm going to reiterate that I see no reason why we can't extend the length of these meetings to get those witnesses in. With all due respect to the immigration committee's presentation to us, we'll hear it, but the worst thing that could happen is that we're not done and they are. So let's get our job done, and then we'll hear what the immigration committee has to say.
12:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Merrifield
Fair enough. We'll deal with it on Wednesday, at the end of the meeting. I'll have more information from the immigration committee then.
The meeting is adjourned.
