Finance Committee on May 2nd, 2023

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

On a point of order, PS Beech.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

You're on a real roll. You are on page 17.

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I'm on 18.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

We have moved to page 18.

I've done some math, Mr. Chair, and I think we might need to ask the clerk a question.

That is 55 pages?

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

Let me make sure I'm not including the bullet notes and the authors. I could read the authors too, but it's 51.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

It's 51, so it would be slightly less. We're about 22% through, so at your current pace you're going to need maybe 40-plus hours to finish. Then I don't know if there's another document, and I'm still excited to hear whether you're speaking—

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I do have another document, but I may leave that to some of my colleagues.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

That's good to know. I was concerned because you've already mentioned that you might not necessarily be here on Friday, so as we search for resources for today, Friday, and potentially Monday, that timeline, even if we're able to get every available committee slot until the minister appeared, we'd be in trouble because now we'd have a minister who was here but we'd till have an unresolved resolution.

We've already cancelled witnesses for the food bank and others, and I'm just inquiring as to the Conservative position on what we are going to do if we get to a point where we haven't resolved Mr. Perkins' wonderful contribution to our committee, just so the minister can also prepare for her performance.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, PS Beech, for that.

On the same point of order, MP Chambers.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Beech raises an excellent question actually, which is why, if we want to manage the committee appropriately, we would need to know, with respect to inviting witnesses, for how long the minister is available on Tuesday. Unless we find out that answer, I don't see how we could proceed at all.

As I hypothesized last week...I actually believe the minister wants to come for two hours. That's my own personal belief, but as I mentioned last week, it was the Prime Minister's Office that was a little uncomfortable about it for a whole bunch of reasons, but we need to know for how long she's available in order to appropriately manage the committee.

I understand we have a question out to the minister's office. I'm quite happy to walk over there and ask. I know exactly where the building is, the James Michael Flaherty Building. I know what floor it's on. I didn't work in that building but I have been in it, and I'm happy to walk over there before question period. I will do that, but if we don't have an answer from the minister, I don't see how we'll have a resolution before the end of this meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Thank you, MP Chambers.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

My question was for the clerk.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

This is on the timing.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Just regarding the timing, Mr. Perkins has already stated that he's probably got 30 or 40 hours left in him—maybe more. We only have, let's call it, 20 hours of slots between now and the minister's arriving, so do we just keep the invitation outstanding or do we just wait and see what happens? What is the standard practice?

I'm sure there are other members who want to speak as well.

[The Clerk]

That is entirely the decision of the committee.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

What you are saying is we have to get to a resolution and probably have a vote to figure out what the committee wants to do before we can make any decisions.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

On the same point of order, Mr. Chair, I only speak for myself.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

On the same point of order, MP Chambers.

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

Thank you very much.

I only speak for myself and not on behalf of my fellow colleagues. I would be prepared to provide UC for the minister to appear if she were to appear on Tuesday and suspend the debate that we're currently having, but we would have to test that with the rest of the committee, and, of course, as I say, I only speak for myself and I might be a lone vote on that front. But there are ways in which this committee could arrange its affairs with unanimous consent to allow the minister to appear, should she, all of a sudden, walk through those doors on Tuesday.

We do not need to answer the question before she were to appear if we had unanimous consent.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

Just for my own clarity, you would suspend debate on the motion to invite the minister in order to allow the minister to appear, then you would resume debate on inviting the minister to appear. Is that what you're proposing?

[Rick Perkins, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

If she hasn't appeared for two hours—

[Adam Chambers, Conservative, Simcoe North, ON]

I believe the minister has agreed to appear on Tuesday, so there we go.

[The Chair, Liberal, Peter Fonseca]

Just for members again, the minister has emailed the committee and agreed to appear on Tuesday before our committee. The minister is prepared to appear on May 16 before our committee.

[Terry Beech, Liberal, Burnaby North—Seymour, BC]

I think I have my answer, Mr. Chair.

Thank you.