Finance Committee on March 9th, 2010

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

It would likely be some time in the next couple of months.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

I would think we'd want to have them earlier--

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

That's fine with me.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

--after we answer the questions they put in their letter. If there's more information that's relevant in the Budget Implementation Act, then perhaps we could ask them back again.

[Ted Menzies, Conservative, Macleod, AB]

I have no problem with that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Wallace, please.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I'd just like a clarification because of the Nortel pension issues. There are a couple, but we're talking about the stock option one, where the people didn't...right?

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Right. This is the stock option issue.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay, thank you. I just wanted to make sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

All in favour of the motion?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Colleagues, I want to discuss the estimates. I want to mention a private member's bill that has been reported to the House. Also, for the information purposes of your staff, Governor Mark Carney is confirmed for Tuesday, April 27, from 3:30 to 5:30, on his monetary policy report.

With respect to the supplementary estimates, the current supply period ends Friday, March 26, so we do have to address the supplementary estimates before then if this committee so wishes. I just wonder whether the committee wishes to address the supplementary estimates.

Mr. Wallace.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I would like an opportunity to take at least an hour, but not to spend a full meeting on supplementary estimates (C). I think it's our responsibility as parliamentarians to look at the expenditures, and this is one of our key opportunities that I wouldn't like to see us pass up. So I'd like to see one meeting set aside for that.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

You'd like one meeting. Okay.

Mr. Mulcair.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

I would also like one of the persons who works closely with us and who does our research to kindly check a technical detail for me. The first analysis was scheduled for March 1, but in fact did not start until March 3.

Will this late start affect any of the other dates provided for in the budget? The government missed the March 1 deadline, but the analysis was tabled on March 3. That was illegal, given that the deadline had passed. I merely want to know if there any possible future repercussions, in so far as the Supplementary Estimates are concerned.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Do you want to know whether the March 26 deadlines are affected by the--

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Exactly.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

But are you okay with the days on the supplementary estimates?

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Yes, but I want to find out, as a member of this committee, what is the legal effect of having missed that date. There was something called prorogation that made us miss that date.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Yes, I heard about it.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Outremont, QC]

Our little Sarah Palins on the other side couldn't go rogue, so they went prorogue.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Pacetti.

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

Based on past experience, can I make a suggestion that we have finance officials at the same time as CRA, instead of doing an hour each? Sometimes the material in one hour is drier than in the other, and we need more time for the other one. I think we have somebody else, also. I'm not sure which estimates we have, but could we just package them all and have them in two hours?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We would have a two-hour session.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Did he say “all of them”?

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Can we do main estimates at the same time?

[Massimo Pacetti, Liberal, Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC]

It wouldn't be all of them. I'm not sure which main estimates we're looking at. Maybe we can discuss it afterwards.