Finance Committee on June 15th, 2011

[Mark Mahabir, Analyst, Library of Parliament]

My name is Mark Mahabir. I am a lawyer. I specialize in tax, and I work with the Library of Parliament. My division is macroeconomics and trade.

[Brett Stuckey, Analyst, Library of Parliament]

Hi. I'm Brett Stuckey. I am an economist by trade. I'm also in the same section, macroeconomics and trade, and I've been on the committee for about a year.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Colleagues, I do want some guidance from you, the committee, in terms of how to deal with the budget bill. We have a vote. The bells will ring at 6:30. We have a vote at 6:45 tonight on the motion introduced by the House leader. I think we can probably presume this motion will pass, so I would just counsel you that this motion says that if the bill is not reported back by Monday, June 20, 2011, during routine proceedings--which on Monday, as you know, follow question period, so at three o'clock--it shall be deemed to have been reported from the committee without amendment.

That means that as the committee, we have to study it by Monday afternoon. One option is obviously to come back as the committee tonight to hear from officials and witnesses and to do clause-by-clause. Those are the three items we have to do. We could do those tonight. We could do them tomorrow morning. We should be cognizant of the NDP's convention in Vancouver. We could meet Monday morning. So we could meet one of those times or two of those times, but as the chair I would like your input as to when we should study.

I have Ms. Glover first.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Seeing that the officials have been patiently waiting, I would suggest that we try to move forward if the opposition wants to hear from officials and if members on this side want to hear from officials. The officials are present and I would suggest that we move forward on it this evening.

Then I would entertain suggestions from the opposition with regard to whether or not they want to hear from witnesses. That would have to be done potentially on Thursday; however, I might note that Mr. Brison would like to be here. I have spoken with him and unfortunately he is not available Thursday morning. That's unfortunate, but I do want to respectfully indicate that if the committee did want to hear from witnesses, Thursday might not entirely work out for Mr. Brison.

We have to do clause-by-clause. I would suggest that on Monday we meet to do clause-by-clause, which would mean that if we are going to hear witnesses it might be a very long meeting on Monday, but it does have to be done before the afternoon.

Those are my comments.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Mr. Chair, just very quickly, all of those times are fine with me, but I'm just curious. Based on your experience, if everything goes moderately normally, what would be the time expectation to have it finished so that it could be reported back by Monday?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

That's a good question.

In terms of the officials, I'll just clarify. They have been waiting very patiently, and we do thank them for being here. One option is to hear from them tonight.

Obviously, they did give a briefing last night, at which many of the members or their staff were present. They gave a fulsome briefing.

It depends on how many questions there are for the officials, but my sense is that is if we have witnesses on Monday morning, I think we could do witnesses Monday morning and then clause-by-clause.

I'll just point out to members that if they have a question of the officials but perhaps want to hear from a witness first, they can always raise it with the officials during the clause-by-clause examination of the bill.

My sense is that hopefully we could do that within a two- to three-hour period. Maybe I'm being optimistic, but we could certainly book a three-hour or four-hour time slot tomorrow morning or Monday morning, if the committee is amenable. I think we could finish it within that time.

This is a much smaller budget implementation bill--thankfully--than normal, although we were able to get through those bills in a very timely manner as well.

Ms. Sgro, please.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Mr. Brison has indicated--and I believe he has had some discussions--that he wanted a representative from C.D. Howe and someone from the university as well, and they can't be here until Monday morning.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Yes. I think that was indicated to me as the chair. Monday morning would be best for witnesses for Mr. Brison, and I think for Ms. Nash as well.

Is that...?

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Yes, Mr. Chair. We're fine with doing the clause-by-clause and having witnesses on Monday if Mr. Brison is not available tomorrow.

We do have just a couple of minutes, and I know that we had a question on the mortgage insurance section, part 7. While we're here and before the bells ring, could we take advantage of the officials being here to ask that question? It might help clear up some concerns we have.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay. As the chair, I'm going to recommend that we bring those officials forward and attempt to deal with this before 6:30.

Then, for Monday morning, can I suggest 10 a.m.? That gives us four hours--if we need it--before question period to finish it. Is that agreeable?

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Ms. Glover.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I have just a quick question, Chair, because it would be nice if we could dismiss the other officials if they're not required. Are there any other questions from the opposition that would require the officials to stay? Otherwise, if we could dismiss the others, they would be grateful.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

It's just mortgage insurance.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Just mortgage insurance? Okay.

That's what we're going to do.

I'm going to very quickly adjourn and then reconvene another meeting to deal with the budget bill.

This meeting is adjourned.