Government Operations Committee on Nov. 25th, 2020

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Is there any further discussion?

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Chair, my colleague Mrs. Vignola, of the Bloc Québécois, brought up the cybersecurity issue. We spoke a bit about it with the minister earlier, but it wasn't as part of a study specifically on the response to COVID-19.

Cybersecurity is not just about computer systems. It's about taking a broader look at what happened in Canada during the pandemic in terms of cybersecurity with experts in the field whom we should invite to answer our questions. The minister will not be able to answer our questions on this, based on what we saw earlier.

Regarding the last point, again, it would be worthwhile to have companies come and explain their best practices, but what we want to know right now is what the government did not do well in managing pandemic. If we want to improve things, we can consult these individuals later, but I don't think we're looking for best practices right now. Instead, we're trying to find out what was done wrong and what needs to be improved, obviously.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

If that's what you want to focus on, Mr. Paul-Hus, I remind you that the pandemic is not yet over. So could you wait until it is over before we look at what was done wrong?

We have come down a peg or two, and we ask that you do the same with respect to these witnesses.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Okay, if you want to start getting offended, we can do that. I'm good at that.

However, we are trying to keep calm and come up with a game plan so that Ms. Deraspe can finish her work. We can leave your part in, I have no problem with that. We will see what we can do in three or four months when we get there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. Weiler.

[Patrick Weiler, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I just want to suggest one more witness for the eighth meeting, and that's a company called AbCellera. It just had a COVID-19 therapy that was approved by PHAC and there's been an order of 26,000 of their therapies. I think that would be a really interesting addition to have in that eighth meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Weiler.

Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm sorry, I couldn't help but blurt out and laugh at your comment, Mr. Drouin. It seems the exact opposite of what your health minister and everyone else is saying, that now is not the time to review things. If we want to leave that in and keep it open to the idea of adjusting it as we get further.... Meeting 12 could very well be in February or March because another round of the estimates will be coming out. Are you open to maybe keeping it open to adjusting it as we go?

Are you fair with that, Mr. Drouin?

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. Drouin.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

If you look at the list of witnesses, we can all go back and redo the list and work on a pro-rated system such as we usually work on.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm just saying that it's the 12th meeting and it's so far down the road. It seems to be the only real contentious meeting. Do you want to take a look at it a bit further down if it's still relevant?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Yes, absolutely.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

Are you open to change or adjusting, adding witnesses or deleting, further down?

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Sure, we can do that, but I'm not naive enough not to know that in terms of what happens in three months you guys might have something else to talk about.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

We could be in a spring election as well.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's entirely up to you, Mr. McCauley.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I think it's up to someone with a beard on your side.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

If we're going to be getting into arguments like this then—

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I'm just saying that otherwise we could be sitting here all day going back and forth, and I don't know if that's a valuable use of all of our time, especially when that could be, again, three or four months down the road.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Right. If we're going to get into the arguments, I'm saying that we'll throw all of these witnesses out and start over again and then work our way through, as we did the last time, and make sure you guys get an equal number of witnesses based on a pro-rated system like the one we work with in other committees. I don't want to go down that road, but you guys are resisting that 12th meeting and most of those are our witnesses. We'll have to go back and check.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

That's just a coincidence.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Yes, I'm sure it is.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

We're going back and forth, and that could go on all night.

I appreciate your comments.

Raphaëlle, did you have a comment?

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, if I may, Madame Vignola had indicated an interest in speaking as well. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

I'm sorry.

Madame Vignola, would you go first, and then we'll have Raphaëlle after that?

Thank you.