Government Operations Committee on Nov. 25th, 2025

[Tamara Jansen, Conservative, Cloverdale—Langley City, BC]

I'm not even talking about what's commercially confidential. I'm talking about job guarantees.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I'm sorry, but I have to interrupt. That is our time.

Next is Ms. Khalid, please, for five minutes.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to the witnesses, again, for being here today.

I served on the Winnipeg labs committee, where we looked over confidential documents to see whether the redactions were necessary or not. There were a lot of documents, for sure. A lot of that dealt with national security and intelligence issues.

In your instance, can you walk us through what considerations your department would take in the redactions proposed in these documents?

[Philip Jennings]

I'll clarify for this committee that the redactions were following discussions with Stellantis in this case. In past, there were different companies with which we had discussions in terms of redactions, and it's what they feel is commercially confidential, based on the current situation.

I also gave an example earlier. If they're going to launch a new car product, for example, they want to protect that information until that project is launched, so we want to protect that information. The only people who would best understand what should be commercially confidential and until when would be the company, so that's who we interact with to make sure that it is protected as long as we can.

In terms of the suggestion to have an approach that is perhaps similar to what you had but in a different context, a different committee, I think that would be a constructive way to potentially spend time. It's really about having to look at what's redacted in those documents and having Stellantis at the table—which is the one who recommended those redactions—to make sure that there's full accountability at this committee in understanding why the redactions were made and whether, in your judgment as a committee, you feel that those are commercially confidential or not.

We have our own judgment as a department, but you, as a committee, have to make your own judgment as to whether you agree with that or not. We are pretty confident that what is being redacted is commercially confidential, and we feel confident that it has gone beyond what would normally be the case, as an ATIP, for sure, in terms of releasing as much information as it can.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you for that.

I know that all members of this committee really want to ask the company in question a lot of these questions as well, so, Mr. Chair, I want to move a motion at this point. I move:

That representatives from Stellantis Inc. appear before the committee for at least one hour to discuss the government response to the motion for the production of papers adopted on Monday, October 20, 2025, about contracts with Stellantis, provided that if they do not appear on or before Thursday, December 4, a summons be issued for them to testify before this committee for at least one hour on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

I suspect there are similar motions coming from the other two parties, so I'm glad that you've put it out there.

I was actually going to suggest very similarly that, although we don't have a lot of open time, we could fit one hour in before Tuesday. I don't want to do it on a Thursday evening. I thought that, if we can get committee approval, we can fit in one hour. We'll leave it up to the clerk to deal with that. We can set a time with Stellantis for one hour on a Tuesday, or we can just adopt the motion as such.

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Mr. Chair, as you can see, we have consensus to compel Stellantis to appear before the committee.

The question is, are we asking them to be here in person? If they know about it a little ahead of time, they'll be able to travel. I did intend to move such a motion, as did my Conservative colleague, but it is the goal that is important.

Therefore, I am in favour of the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Would you mind reading the last part? Is it by December 9 or on December 9?

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

It's on December 9.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Okay.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I'll read the motion again for colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Yes, if you don't mind, and I'll check our calendar.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

That representatives from Stellantis Inc. appear before the committee for at least one hour to discuss the government response to the motion for the production of papers adopted on Monday, October 20, 2025, about contracts with Stellantis, provided that if they do not appear on or before Thursday, December 4, a summons be issued for them to testify before this committee for at least one hour on Tuesday, December 9, 2025.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks.

December 9 is tentatively close to what we have for the PSPC minister for the supplementaries. If we do go ahead, that would make it a bit longer meeting on a Tuesday, so we'll start a bit earlier or else we'll move it a bit later. Hopefully we won't require a summons to have them here by that time. It's just an FYI.

We all seem to be in agreement. I see nods all around that we can accept that.

(Motion agreed to)

Madam Gaudreau.

[Marie-Hélène Gaudreau, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

While we're at it, I'd like to know how many meetings we have left.

I'm concerned about the Canada Post study. We know that management and labour reached an agreement on Friday. I expect the CEO to appear as soon as possible, before the Christmas break, to answer our questions.

There's also the Kaplan report. I want to know about our planning, as 40 million Canadians and 17 million addresses are affected across Canada.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Thanks for bringing that up.

We do have December 4 confirmed for the president of Canada Post. The Kaplan report has not been given to us, but I'm going to suggest we ask for it.

When we went through this previously in 2016, when I was around for the first Canada Post, there was a task force arranged by the minister at the time, Minister Foote. It issued a paper called “Canada Post in the Digital Age”. It was shared with the committee as part of our study. Perhaps we can ask to get the Kaplan report released before December 4.

We don't have any other meetings on that. The general agreement is to see what the president has to say now that the strike has been settled. We'll go from there and see what the report says.

Minister Lightbound will be here, hopefully, on the ninth. We can do a quick follow-up. We can decide in the new year if there are any other meetings that need to be followed up on.

Ms. Khalid.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I'm sorry, Chair, but I just want to make sure. I know we can't compel witnesses to appear in person. However, it is our role, as we reach out to them, to encourage them to come in person so they don't deal with technical issues at the last minute.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

We'll make a very strong recommendation. I'm sure you're right. They were watching on ParlVU, and they've heard our concerns. We'll make that a very strong recommendation.

We're pretty much done. I just have to do a budget approval quickly.

Before we do so, witnesses, thanks for being with us today. We appreciate your time. We will excuse you.

I will note that we have gone through this procedure with the vaccine contracts. It was very similar. We had Pfizer and other manufacturers come in with PSPC and public accounts. The fully unredacted contracts were given to the committee for review under the rules of no phones and no notes be taken out. There is a precedent for fully unredacted contracts being shared with Parliament.

Very quickly, we have $1,750 for this study. Can we have quick approval? Again, we won't spend that much.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly McCauley]

Wonderful.

We'll get back to everyone as soon as possible, regarding possible dates for Stellantis. We should probably discuss on Thursday if we will have anyone from the Department of Industry back at that same meeting. Perhaps you can talk amongst yourselves, and we can decide briefly on Thursday.

If there's nothing else, thank you for all those who subbed in today with some great questions. We certainly appreciate it.

We are adjourned.