Evidence of meeting #9 for Subcommittee on Food Safety in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was inspectors.
A recording is available from Parliament.
8:20 p.m.
NDP
Malcolm Allen NDP Welland, ON
No, I understand, Mr. Chair. The timeline I still had was the 10th for approval of the final report of the subcommittee on listeriosis.
8:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
The clerk just checked, and it looks like it does. Thank you.
Go ahead, Mr. Anderson.
May 25th, 2009 / 8:20 p.m.
Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC
We don't oppose this in principle, I don't think. The way it's written here sounds as if everything that comes in, in terms of written testimony and recommendations, is going to be for inclusion--that is, it needs to be included in the final report. I think Mr. Allen probably means “for consideration” rather than “inclusion”, unless he's saying that we're going to take whatever we get here and it's going to be in the final report.
8:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I'm certainly not going to speak for Mr. Allen. I would presume that what you're saying is correct, but I'll ask Mr. Allen to respond.
8:20 p.m.
Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC
The other point, in terms of recommendations, is that I think it's the job of the committee. It's fine if we take suggested recommendations from people, but it's actually the job of this committee to try to put the recommendations together. People can make their suggestions as to what we should do, and we certainly welcome that. But it's our responsibility, and not anybody else's, to come up with the recommendations for the committee.
8:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
That's a fair point.
Is there further discussion? We'll go to Mr. Bellavance and then to Mr. Dhaliwal.
8:20 p.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
In French, we read that witnesses should be invited to submit their "written testimony and/or recommendations to the committee [so we'll be able to read them] for inclusion in the final report."
If all that people write to us can fit into 150 pages, I imagine that Mr. Allen's intention is not that this should be included in the report. Our researcher goes through exactly the same exercise when people come to testify.
We too will read these written testimonies. In our discussions, when we report on them, we'll be able to say that such and such an element contributed by such and such a witness can be integrated in the report, even if this witness didn't actually testify, since we'll have his written testimony. Then the recommendations can arise from them.
Do I interpret the nature of the motion correctly?
8:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Quite often, Mr. Bellavance, you've seen in reports prepared for committee that there are excerpts or quotes from witnesses or whatever. I presume this is going to be the case here too. I'd be surprised if it wasn't, in response to that.
Go ahead, Ms. Folco.
8:20 p.m.
Liberal
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
As for the French version, Mr. Chair, I suggest writing—this is a simple suggestion, not a recommendation— in the fourth line from the end: "to the committee for consideration for the final report" or something like that, because that gives the committee a chance to discuss it, to accept it or reject it.
I'm not in complete agreement with my colleague across from me when he says that all the recommendations should come from this committee. From my experience, the people who are experiencing the problem often have solutions for dealing with it. And it's always a good idea to ask them for recommendations, and then the recommendations can be accepted, reformulated or whatever by this committee.
8:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I think, not to speak for Mr. Anderson, that he was saying that there's nothing wrong with receiving recommendations. It's ultimately, though, the committee that makes them and what have you.
We'll have Mr. Shipley and then Mr. Easter.
8:25 p.m.
Cypress Hills—Grasslands, CPC
I have just one other thing. I'd like some explanation as to what kind of weight we're going to give all the potential witnesses on the committee list, because clearly, if people can submit their positions without any questioning or any explanation of what they're doing, that puts them in an advantageous position compared to the people who have had to come here and justify their positions in their testimony. It just depends on how much weight we're going to give to that, because you can end up with a couple of special interest groups with some fairly strong opinions.
Are we going to give those the same weight as we're going to give the people who came here and gave us their testimony?
8:25 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I guess my comment would be that we did have a list of witnesses. Some couldn't come for different reasons, whether it was timing or whatever. For example, Mr. Kingston, who was here tonight, was invited earlier with the witnesses in our first meetings. He couldn't come at that time and asked to be deferred. That's the same case with a number of other witnesses. Unless given different direction from the chair--the chair and the clerk--for the original witness list we have, they could basically prepare that testimony and give to us. That would be my understanding of that. How much weight we put on it, I guess, is up to the analysts when they write the report. If we want to amend that report, we always have that right as a committee or subcommittee.
Mr. Easter.
8:25 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I agree with what you're saying, Mr. Chair, and I agree with the motion. I think there have been a number of witnesses, for whatever reason, who didn't get to this committee. They were on the original list. We need to give them the opportunity to send information to the committee in writing, if they so decide. They can include recommendations. Some of the witnesses have included recommendations. We will debate those recommendations, make a judgment call on them, and go forward, but it would allow us to add further evidence to our report. If we have a problem with some of the things they say or want to question them, we can always pick up the phone and call them and clarify a few points.
I think the motion is important because there seem to have been quite a number of witnesses we didn't get to hear.
8:25 p.m.
Liberal
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
I think it's all right. It's just a question of the translation.
8:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
When we go through the number, there may be quite a few of them and there may not be many, but are there some conditions in terms of length? I'm not so sure we're looking for a 30- or 40-page document. I don't know, and it doesn't matter what side we're on here. I think we want to be looking at some sort of executive summary, or some sort of presentation of four or five pages at the most. When they're making a ten-minute presentation to us, most of that's in a five-page presentation or so, and I just think we should put some cap on it or we're likely to get some pretty thick documents.
8:25 p.m.
Liberal