Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm going to use my time right now to move a motion that was put on notice on April 28:
That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study of one two-hour meeting to examine how the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, within its role as the machinery of government agent for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, allocates resources to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in execution of Canada's commitments under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries, and the working relationship between the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission in delivery of the convention’s five major charges for the commission;
that the committee call senior officials from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to appear as witnesses concurrently;
that the committee present its conclusions and recommendations in a report to the House; and
that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government table a comprehensive response to this report.
I bring this motion forward, Mr. Chair, because we have been basically playing a tennis match between what we hear from DFO and what is actually delivered through the mechanism right now, with not all of the funds going to the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
We've heard testimony from DFO officials and heard further from the Great Lakes Fishery Commission that their initial testimony was incorrect. We brought DFO back in. They said something further. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission had a counter to that.
We as a committee have already spent I think.... Individual members have been going back and forth a lot on this, even in this committee meeting. I propose that we have them both in at the same time so we can minimize the impact on our work as a committee and hopefully work towards a solution to this situation, which has become such an irritant that our U.S. counterparts in the Great Lakes Fishery Commission have withdrawn from the budgetary process.
I believe Mr. Epp has further information on this, if he'd like to add it.