Foreign Affairs Committee on March 23rd, 2010

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Frankly, my off-the-cuff answer to that would be let's wait and see what happens at the end of the witnesses and let's see what the situation is then. I think we'll have to look at it then. I certainly don't have a fixed view on it, I can assure you, as to whether it's worth it, frankly, because we all know it will be as contentious as hell and may not be the best way to deal with this question. I think we need to get some more facts out on the table and hear the perspectives that people have, and then try to see whether we can set up a process for a report.

I don't have a fixed view on it. I just assumed we didn't make that decision until we were down the road, if that's okay with everybody.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Mr. Dewar.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I think those comments were attributed to me, because initially I was asking that we do that, but there is nothing in front of us to suggest we do that.

First of all, if this committee is in fact the committee that has oversight to the institute, I think we have some responsibility, if we find there are problems, to make recommendations. I guess what Mr. Rae has said is fine. I think if people see there are major problems with the way things were done, and there could be changes made, then we should recommend. Recall that this institute was born out of a report from this committee and that we are the ones who have oversight to the institute.

I think it's incumbent on us not just to hear from people—and there will be contentious issues, no doubt—but if there are things that need to be repaired, we make recommendations. I think it's a reasonable thing in the spirit of cooperation here today that we look at having that as an option. We can do that as a committee, Chair. We can say that after what we've heard, we think we should make some recommendations. We might even come up with them without having to spend weeks hearing from people. We might actually come up with some things everyone agrees to; you never know.

I'll just refrain from commenting on Mr. Abbott's comments. I'm not going to bite today, Jim, and I'll leave it there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay. Let me then summarize the list of people we're going to work into the schedule over the next couple of weeks. I believe Mr. Obhrai was going to put forward another witness as well. We're going to try to get in for the second hour on the 25th, which is--

[Bob Rae, Liberal, Toronto Centre, ON]

Does that witness have a name?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes, does that witness have a name? We'll make sure that everyone gets that name.

On the 25th we will try to get department officials on G-8 maternal and child health. If that's not possible, would these other individuals who indicated they'd like to spend a little time before the committee be all right for the second hour?

[An hon. member]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We will first try to look at maternal health. We'll look at working to get the witnesses in. When we have a schedule we'll send it out to the offices.

Is that okay? Is there any other business, then? Can we leave it at this for now?

We will have to have another subcommittee meeting to discuss future business when we get further down into Rights and Democracy.

All right, thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.