Government Operations Committee on May 4th, 2006

[Daryl Kramp, Conservative, Prince Edward—Hastings, ON]

--and where we want to go, in an organized fashion. So just to start going on now with this person or this person.... With all respect to the needs, I can understand that the appointment of Mr. Morgan has already been officially, or unofficially, referred to this committee, and I can understand where we should go there. But as far as going further down the road, I suggest we go to a steering committee format and come up with a focus.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Ms. Thibault.

[Louise Thibault, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

With all due respect to my colleague, and without wanting to be stubborn, I simply want to point out to him that from now until the House adjourns, we will be having very few meetings in which to accomplish anything. We all know that. We have received an invitation. I had the opportunity to gain some experience, and I was pleased to meet with the clerk and her colleagues to discuss new elements that should be taken into consideration, and to benefit from their expertise. We all received an excellent briefing document. I don't believe that we can have a more detailed document than the one we have here before us. It is simply a matter of taking the time to read it.

Nonetheless, given the fact that we have little time before the House theoretically adjourns — I know that it is possible that we may still be sitting after June 9 — I have two suggestions so that we may start discussing certain matters as of next week.

With respect to developing a strategy at a meeting of the steering committee, my colleague and I would like to suggest that this steering committee hold a meeting immediately. However, the steering committee will have to present its results to the Standing Committee and obtain its approval. That will take us to next Thursday. I do not want to speed things up excessively, but next week, we will be holding our first meeting since January 23rd. I am hoping, as I am sure everyone else does, that our next meeting will be productive. It is with that in mind that I am making my suggestion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

I must also inform you that I asked our clerk to prepare a timeline so that we know exactly how many sitting days are left. It is difficult to plan our meetings without having the calendar in hand. We will have it either next Monday or Tuesday.

[The Clerk]

That depends on what happens at the meeting on future business.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

If you wish, we can meet on either Monday morning or Monday afternoon to discuss the committee's future business.

Mr. Kramp, will you be back here Monday? Would Monday afternoon be a good time for you?

[Daryl Kramp, Conservative, Prince Edward—Hastings, ON]

Yes, Monday afternoon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Monday afternoon.

[Louise Thibault, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

I can make sure that I will be here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

We can have a steering committee meeting on Monday afternoon, but meanwhile, on Tuesday, we'll go with Mr. Morgan. And we'll send an invitation to the Minister of Public Works, because at some point he will have to appear before us.

Is there anything else?

I have Mr. Wallace next, and Mr. Albrecht.

Mr. Wallace.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

In the normal course of business when we start up these committees, is it not a normal practice that if there is not a particular issue that we're dealing with, especially at the beginning, we invite whoever technically reports to this committee to come and give us a general overview—

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Absolutely.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

—without a specific hot-item issue in front of us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

That's right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

So can we not just put that on the agenda?

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

At the same time, because we have the estimates before us, we can make it part of the review of the estimates. It's a good way to understand what they're doing as well.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

That's quite standard practice, yes.

Mr. Albrecht.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Madam Chair, thank you.

I want to acknowledge the fact that we do have a lot of work to do, and I'm certainly not up to speed on all the work. I have taken the time to read this document. For someone who's new, it's rather overwhelming. I recognize as well that we can approach staff on our own to get this kind of training.

On this side alone, we have four new MPs, and I think it would be better use of our staff time if we were to have an orientation session or two where we could begin to get a better grasp on some of this material, with a staff person who we could ask questions of back and forth.

I will do better work if I am better prepared with some training, before we just jump into things and I have no idea where we're going.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Monsieur Bonin.

[Raymond Bonin, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Madam Chair, I agree with those comments, and I understand the good intentions of my colleague.

At the beginning of the meeting, you explained two ways we can prepare meetings. One is the steering committee, and the other one is the committee of the whole. All of a sudden we invented a third way, on the spot. We can't operate like that; we either have a system or we don't.

It's completely normal to have the first meeting an orientation meeting. A week ago I didn't even know I was on this committee. It doesn't demean the contribution you will make because you're a new MP; it's my first time on this type of committee, so we're all on the same level.

It's the month of May and there's lot of work to do, but it's the month of May; that's not our fault. And we'll be breaking for the summer. We're going to be working hard and we'll do the best we can, but I don't think we should change the agenda to question an individual, because the calendar will dictate the work that we do. We have to know what we're doing before we start doing it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

Well, I agree with you.

Let me make a suggestion. We're going to meet with the subcommittee on agenda on Monday afternoon. The clerk will find us a place to hold that meeting, if we can find a room somewhere; it doesn't have to be big or anything else. From there, on Tuesday morning, we will invite Mr. Morgan because that has been referred to us, and I'm sure it's important that we start right away.

Does the committee believe that we'll need the full two hours with Mr. Morgan, or do you think that one hour will be enough? Do you think we should take just one hour of our two hours? We could either have orientation before Mr. Morgan comes, or afterwards on Tuesday morning.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I'm just curious if there's any possibility that we could defer Mr. Morgan to the following meeting. The only reason I say so is that if I'm going to go through an orientation an hour before he is here, it would give me no time to then go and do any research that would help me with the questioning process.

[The Chair, Liberal, Diane Marleau]

We're not even sure that we can get Mr. Morgan on Tuesday.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I understand that. Could we just defer it and assure everyone on the committee here now that we've got a little bit more notice?