Evidence of meeting #3 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was herring.
A recording is available from Parliament.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
Well, just in hearing from my colleagues across, is it possible to set it up that way? The 10th totally for Big Bar and the—
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
It's the 10th for Big Bar and the 12th for herring, with officials on both days.
Do we think we need two hours with the officials in each case?
10:05 a.m.
Some hon. members
Yes.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay. We don't need any other witnesses on those days, so there's no panic to send out—
10:05 a.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Knowing that, can we have a bit of an extension, then, on getting you the witnesses for the week after the second break week?
10:05 a.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
What dates would be best for the clerk, given that we're not going to need witnesses for our first week back, so not until the week of the 24th?
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
10:05 a.m.
NDP
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
10:05 a.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Is that Big Bar and herring next Friday, and then a week later for the salmon study?
Does that work for you, Mr. Hardie? Great.
We're talking about March 6 for Big Bar and herring and the 13th for the salmon study.
We agree now that we're going to study and have the department officials on the 10th on Big Bar and on the 12th on herring.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Yes.
March 6 is the deadline for witnesses for whatever we're doing on the 24th.
Are we still on herring on the 24th, or are we on Big Bar, or are we going to salmon, after the officials for the two meetings?
10:05 a.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I suggest that we get Big Bar out of the way, because we'll have one meeting with the department officials and then we'll have one meeting of witnesses. That way, we can get the two meetings done as we agreed so we can get the government response from that.
Does that sound good, Mr. Fast? I know that you talked about getting the two Big Bar meetings in early on.
Or Mr. Arnold? Yes, okay. That way, with the 24th, we can get Big Bar witnesses done.
Maybe on the 26th we could revert back to the herring. Right now, that would be the first meeting where we'd have witnesses. We're going to have the department come to testify. It gets Mr. Battiste at least some witnesses on record prior to the season opening. We'd be open to that.
10:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay.
It was suggested as well that Friday, March 6 would be the deadline for witnesses for Big Bar on the 24th.
Could we say Wednesday, March 11th as the deadline for witnesses for the herring on the 26th. Okay.
I'm going to get Thai to comment on something.
10:10 a.m.
Thai Nguyen Committee Researcher
Good morning, members.
I don't know if members are still in favour of having an interim report after the two meetings on Big Bar or not.
If we're still planning for an interim report after the two meetings on Big Bar, then Michael and I would need a meeting for drafting instructions, so that you can give us instructions for the interim report after the Big Bar hearings.
10:10 a.m.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
What I'm hearing the analyst say is that they need drafting instructions. I'm not sure we need to actually assign full meeting times to do that. As long as this committee is prepared, we could take 10 or 15 minutes at the end of a meeting, or whatever the case might be. I think, colleagues, that allocating time aside just for the purpose of drafting instructions might not be the best use of our time, given the urgency of other issues that we have right now.
As long as we're prepared, at the appropriate time, to give drafting instructions, I think this would be a relatively straightforward thing that we could probably do at the end of a meeting.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Calkins.
For the meeting on the 24th, we have two hours set aside for witnesses. Could I suggest that, if necessary, we'll add a bit of time to it, to give any discussion over to the analysts on what would be seen as necessary for the interim report?
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
All right.
Do we want to schedule any further than that? The 31st is our next meeting and then after that, those four meetings are done.
Mr. Johns.
10:10 a.m.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
It's totally going against my motion to do salmon first. Given that on herring, we already have two meetings out of the way, on the 31st, if we go to herring, we're done. We have three meetings done on herring. We could at least get the wrap on that. I think we should use the 31st for herring, and then start salmon on the 2nd, the full salmon....
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
On that note, we have an invitation sent to the minister. We don't know what day or when that's going to be, so that could make things bump one way or the other.
Mr. Beech.
10:10 a.m.
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
Just for clarification on that, we've just received confirmation that the minister intends to visit the committee on the 26th.