Evidence of meeting #2 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Mr. Chair, I would be happy to. I think you were right, though. I think it was Mr. Sorbara, who appears to have been booted off, and Mr. Badawey, I thought, was in advance of me as well, so I'm happy to yield the floor.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I think there have been some technology problems here with people getting bumped off.
Work on your microphone, Mr. Housefather. We'll let Mr. Badawey go, and then come back to you.
Mr. Badawey, go ahead.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It's been a ride here, I'll tell you, being on the committee in the last meeting and now in this meeting with respect to the debate on something that can be very simple, quite frankly, especially after the vote today in the House.
When I look, for example, at the list of folks who are requesting to appear, it's a great list: the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, the Canadian Association of Radiologists, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Renewable Energy Association, the National Airlines Council of Canada, the Canada Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Research Network, the National Smokeless Tobacco Company, the Canadian Cancer Association, Lighthouse Labs, the Canadian Airports Council, the Canadian Mental Health Association, the Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada, the Forest Products Association of Canada, the Association of Canadian Port Authorities—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We'll go a little further here and we'll see.
Mr. Badawey, what's the key point you're trying to make?
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The key point I'm trying to make.... As many of you know, I chair the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities. One of the things I've been a great believer in since day one in coming to Ottawa is that committees don't work in isolation from each other. Quite frankly, there's a lot of similarity in a lot of the work, in studies that we do together or individually, but together they sort of criss-cross and cross over, and some of the things—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I'm just looking for the subamendment here, Mr. Julian.
Mr. Badawey, you're going to have to tie this into the subamendment, which basically says, “That the committee requests the complete package of documents provided to the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of the House of Commons by relevant Deputy Ministers...as well as the final package of documents”, and then it goes on from there, that the relevant deputy ministers and the law clerk be allowed to give testimony on the redactions in those documents.
If you can speak to that, you're on.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
As I was saying with my point on the crossover, we do on occasion have the opportunity to discuss similar proposals, similar studies.
When I look at this amendment and the principles of the amendment—as well as, to some extent, the world that sometimes a lot of us don't live in beyond the Ottawa bubble—we recognize that when we look at redacted and confidential papers, emails and things of that matter, there are principles of confidentiality in these redacted documents. We all have an opinion on what was redacted and the relevance of it, the importance of it.
There are three principles that I've lived by, whether it's been in the private sector, in a boardroom; in my former capacity as a mayor, in a council chamber; and now in Ottawa. Those principles are quite simple. There are only three of them, so you can count them on one hand.
Essentially, one is privacy laws. With the direction that the federal government took back in 2001, with respect to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, it protects people from divulging their phone numbers, their addresses and information they would otherwise not want to give. Second to that are the confidentiality rules. With confidentiality, again, it's about ensuring that people aren't harmed or in harm's way for any reason, whether it be a business or an individual. Third is the principle of proportionality in the discovery process.
Mr. Chairman, we're at a point now, as I guess to some extent Mr. Poilievre mentioned, where we've had a great discussion on this. We recognize what some of these sensitivities are, most of which, as outlined by Mr. Gerretsen at the last meeting and Mr. Fraser at this meeting, have to do with phone numbers, email addresses and things of that matter.
With that said, there's a lot of work to be done. That's the point I was trying to make earlier with respect to the committee's work with moving forward—
Liberal
Liberal
Peter Fragiskatos Liberal London North Centre, ON
I'm not hearing Mr. Badawey come through very clearly. I wonder if other colleagues are having the same type of issue. There's static on my end.
I know Mr. Housefather had that problem before. I wonder if there's something wrong with the system. Can we look at that?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I'm hearing him fine.
How is the translation coming through, Mr. Ste-Marie? Do you think it's coming through okay? I know it's tough on the translation side all day long, because you're always 10 seconds behind.
He's giving me a thumbs-up.
Okay, go ahead, Mr. Badawey.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Chair, we have an opportunity here to move forward with some work, and I do believe it's well the time to do that. If the committee were to see fit, I think going forward there can be some movement on getting to the work that has to be done. I think it's going to take all of us together to get going in that direction.
I would be looking at members of the opposition to really take the next steps. That way the committee can get to work immediately with respect to some of the priorities that, quite frankly, the finance committee should be looking at.
With that, Mr. Chair, I am going to close by stating that we look at the comments that were being made, whether some might think they were repetitive or not, with respect to what's happened in the past, comments that are currently being debated by all four parties. As well, we should genuinely look at why we are here and what members of the committee really want to move forward with in the manner in which the finance committee should be moving forward in terms of the crisis we're finding ourselves in and the challenges that Canadians are finding themselves in.
I think that's a priority, and I think if members of the opposition sincerely do think that's a direction we should be taking, then some flexibility should be had and we can move forward on that.
Mr. Chairman, I'll leave it there for now and let the next speaker speak, and then hopefully we can see some movement before too much more time at least. It's 10 o'clock right now, and hopefully within the next hour or two we can get some resolve to move forward with the items that our committee should very well be moving forward with.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you, Mr. Badawey.
I did have you previously, Mr. Sorbara. Are you still on, or am I going to Mr. Fraser?
October 21st, 2020 / 10:10 p.m.
Liberal
Liberal
Francesco Sorbara Liberal Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON
It's great to be back on the finance committee and it's great to be here this evening. Four and a half years of sitting on the finance committee with the chair was a great experience.
Mr. Chair, it is getting late, and I move that the committee do now adjourn.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Okay. There is no debate on the motion.
I will have to ask you, Madam Clerk, to poll the committee.
