Government Operations Committee on June 7th, 2018

[Michael Ferguson]

Just the importance of understanding that there needs to be a certain tension between what ministers are trying to achieve and the role of civil servants.... I mean, obviously in the political world there's more of a focus on the four-year election cycle, and I think deputy ministers and the civil service need to have a focus on that. Also, of course, they're responsible to implement government policy, but they also need to be looking more to the longer term as well in being able to bring forward those types of issues, so that there needs to be a bit of tension between the ministers and the civil servants.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Thank you, everyone.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Thank you very much.

I'd like to thank the witnesses. I'm going to suspend.... We're still in public. I'll excuse the witnesses.

We will continue. I will cede the floor to Mr. McCauley, who has a motion.

Go ahead, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thanks. I just want to bring through my motion.

[A voice]

Are we back in order? You were suspending...?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

No. We are back in committee business.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Thank you.

I'll bring forward my motion that I tabled last week:

That the Committee extend its sitting on Thursday, June 7, 2018, to hold a panel meeting with Treasury Board Secretariat officials and officials from each of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Department of Finance, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, Department of Indigenous Services Canada, Department of Industry, Department of Natural Resources, Department of the Environment, Department of Transport, National Research Council of Canada, and Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs to discuss their allotments in the Main Estimates 2018-19 as per the online list provided by the Treasury Board Secretariat.

I think my colleague Mr. Kelly will put through a friendly amendment to change it to Monday.

[Pat Kelly, Conservative, Calgary Rocky Ridge, AB]

I want to amend it just to change it from Thursday to Monday. I understand that there's been discussion. I hope there will be consent to amend Mr. McCauley's motion to substitute the words “Monday, June 11” rather than having “Thursday, June 7”, and to proceed with the motion from there. That's all.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

For the benefit of the committee, we have checked with Treasury Board officials, and they are available Monday afternoon. The only thing is, first, we must agree to adopt the motion.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I do want to speak briefly to it.

I don't oppose the motion or the amendment, but I would say that it seems to me there have been some discussions between the government and the official opposition. As somebody who's a vice-chair of the committee and represents another official party on the committee, I think that if the government is going to negotiate with opposition members about a supplementary meeting, they should negotiate directly with the NDP, as well as with the official opposition. That didn't happen. I think it's worth having that on the record and I'm saying that in future it will not be well received if we're not part of negotiations on supplementary meetings.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

It's a point well taken. I think because it was Mr. McCauley's motion, I guess the negotiation was among committee members, actually.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

One thing we need to know is that we will have to keep it from 3:30 to 5:30.... I think that's the time available for Monday.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

It has to be before QP procedurally, I think.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Officials are not available.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

We could leave it with Patrick and when he can find the most officials, because it's pointless if we show up at 3:30 and we just have one person here.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

It has to be before QP, I think.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's why I am saying we should focus on where we get the most officials.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Fair enough.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Yes, leave it with the officials.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

If it's 8:30, they can all show up.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

It's 11 o'clock.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

No, I'm saying whenever we can get the most officials. We should work around when our clerk can find the most people, rather than most of us....

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I think Mr. McCauley has a very good point. All I would ask is that for travel arrangements some of us will have to know, with some lead time. It's different whether—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

It's 11 o'clock or three o'clock.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

—it's happening on a Monday afternoon or a Monday morning, so it would be useful to know sometime tomorrow, with enough time to be able to change a booking.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Yasmin Ratansi]

Fair enough. Perfect.

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.