Evidence of meeting #84 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cbsa.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
We are a bit over the time we had planned, and I'll just say that the committee already made the decision to summon them, and if they're going to come anyway, it's a moot point, right? The point is, they're going to be in these chairs, and I think there are reasons the committee needs to hear from these people. People are welcome to be in the gallery, but I think we want to hear from the witnesses we want to hear from.
Chair, I just want to ask about Josée Bastien.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
That is the retired person we have not been able to get a hold of or track down.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Oh, okay. Would that person be relevant to have with this panel as well?
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
All right. I guess we can come back to that, then.
Conservative
Liberal
Majid Jowhari Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
Can we get a resolution on whether the DG and the ADM could join as well, at the same time?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Can we get agreement for that?
I understand what you were saying, Mr. Genuis, but—
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Just bring them along. You don't have to ask questions of them.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Can we maintain a speaking order, please?
Go ahead, Mr. Genuis.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
I think it matters. I asked to hear from Mr. Doan alone for a reason, because somebody can pass things off to someone else when you have a large group.
We can also have these other witnesses come subsequently, but just given who seems to have been directly responsible and given also that we have a dynamic right now of, frankly, senior public servants accusing other senior public servants of lying to the committee, I think, under the circumstances, it might be judicious to have people testify alone or separately, without having everybody's bosses coming with them.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
If you look at the last couple of meetings we've had—and Mr. Johns wants to speak there, so I just want to make sure we're not ignoring him—we've had testimony from Botler, from Mr. Firth, from Mr. Cameron and from Mr. Utano, and there's contradictory information that can't be either corroborated or contested, so here we are suggesting that we actually bring more witnesses to the table to include those at the junior level as well as folks at the senior level, who would have insight at a certain level, a higher level, and who could answer questions.
I think we should have them there together. They actually offered to come to committee. We want to get to the bottom of this, and I want to say that—
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
—that's the reason I want to have the senior folks here as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Mr. Johns, I know you have your hand up, but I'm getting some nods around the table, so can we just agree that the two—the ADM and the other one who was mentioned—
