Evidence of meeting #41 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was report.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Is that so? Has the committee not received the documents the motion asks for?
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
If anybody can point out, among the documents we received, the document that shows any requests for its preparation, I'll gladly retract what I'm saying.
We have not received all documents requested.
Liberal
Chris d'Entremont Liberal Acadie—Annapolis, NS
The committee has received all the information it requested that is available.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
Can you tell me which document shows the request for the study for the report?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm sorry. I wasn't here for this, so I'm asking the committee to fill me in on what actually happened.
Mr. Arnold is saying that, in fact, not all documents were received. You are saying, Mr. D'Entremont, that all documents were received.
May I ask the clerk?
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
Item (b)(i) states:
(i) all documents, including but not limited to memoranda, briefing notes, and internal communications, related to the decision to produce this report, including any requests for its preparation and associated allocation of resources....
Where are those documents?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm reading the motion in its entirety, and it is requesting that.
Mr. Arnold is saying those documents were not received. Perhaps we can find out from the clerk and the analysts if those documents were received. It's a valid question to ask.
I'm going to suspend for a minute while we get some information.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I'm calling the meeting back to order.
The question that caused the suspension of the meeting was to check whether what's in (b)(i), which was “all documents, including but not limited to”, was received by the committee.
I will ask the clerk to indicate if that is the case or not.
The Clerk of the Committee Maxime Ricard
It would be up to committee members to judge the content, but under (b)(i), as organized by DFO, they've numbered their responses and documents according to our motion's numbering. There are three documents under (b)(i).
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Obviously, “all documents” meant three documents. They were sent by DFO, and that is what the committee received.
Mr. Arnold.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
Can we ask the clerk if any of those documents were titled as the request for the report?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
As requested under (b)(i), I think that's all they got. That's what he's saying. You have three documents.
Go ahead, Maxime, and answer the question.
The Clerk
The short answer is no. The titles are “Request for Advice”, “Planning Notes” and “Planning Notes”.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
There was no request for the report, because that's what it said.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
It says:
(i) all documents, including but not limited to memoranda, briefing notes, and internal communications, related to the decision to produce this report, including any requests for its preparation and associated allocation of resources....
The last part says, “including any requests for its preparation”.
Was a request for the preparation of the report included in the documents that were provided to this committee?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
That was in the motion. That was requested. What the committee received was what DFO sent, which was three documents. The documents that were received were, I gathered, all that DFO sent to us. That's it.
You asked for the documents. You got three. They may not be everything you wanted, but the bottom line is that documents were received.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative Kamloops—Shuswap—Central Rockies, BC
When documents are ordered to be produced for the committee, someone else doesn't get to pick and choose which documents are provided. It was very specific in the motion which documents were to be provided. Who picked and chose which documents they would provide and decided to leave other documents out?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
I think DFO would have had to make a decision about whether they had any documents they could send, such as requests for preparation and associated allocation of resources. Obviously, they did not have that.
Mr. d'Entremont.
Liberal
Chris d'Entremont Liberal Acadie—Annapolis, NS
Those three documents that were sent are hundreds of pages. If we want to review them again, I suppose that's our prerogative. A number of documents were presented. It might not be exactly what the Conservatives thought they were going to get, and it didn't fit their narrative, but it's the information.
The request is pretty straightforward about reviewing the document that's before us. If we want to talk about offshore wind at some other juncture, let's bring a motion forward on looking at offshore wind. That's not contained in this report.
