Health Committee on June 20th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

You can.

How long has this individual been in the position?

[Sonya Norris, Committee Researcher]

How long has he been there?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Do we know that?

[Sonya Norris]

Since 1998.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

[Inaudible--Editor]...Mr. Merrifield.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Actually it's your government that appointed him.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Then we'll definitely support him. It won't be a Gwyn Morgan....

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

If you would like to challenge this appointment, feel free to do that.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

We're doing due diligence on behalf of our constituents.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

So does your motion stand?

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Okay.

We have a motion on the floor.

I understand this is a capable individual doing a job--

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

Right, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

But the committee can bring him forward as a witness and we can ask him these kinds of questions if we so wish. But I don't see the call for that by any committee members. So we have the motion to approve it.

(Motion agreed to)

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

Mr. Chairman, can you tell me what this means exactly? The French says something different, namely “Le comité prend acte du renvoi du certificat de nomination...”. That does not mean the same thing as

“The committee has taken note of the certificate of nomination....”

The scope is quite different.

[Nancy Miller Chenier, Committee Researcher]

We don't have the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

The clerk is telling me it's a motion that we have put forward approving this individual for appointment. That's really what it is.

[Nicole Demers, Bloc, Laval, QC]

He's been there since 1998. Have there ever been any complaints about the quality of the services provided?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

The motion is passed.

We'll now move on to the notice of motion put forward by Ms. Priddy.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a question, and it's a follow-up to Madam Demers' point.

Under normal circumstances, so that I'm fully aware of how appointments work at the health committee, is it the normal procedure to put on the agenda that person X needs to be appointed to position Y and it's put before us?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

We can do it this way, if we're uncomfortable with that. In the time that I've been on the committee, we once had the individual come forward. I think Dr. Bernstein was the last one. We had him come forward, we sat around, we asked him questions about his appointment, and then we made a decision.

We could do that again here.

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I wasn't necessarily speaking to this appointment, but I would suggest that in the future it may not be a bad idea.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

This was one that the committee actually knew was coming forward. We heard no resistance from anyone, so that's why we thought we didn't need to bring him forward. I'm neutral on this, so whatever the committee wants to do....

On Bill S-2, he will be here before the committee, and he'll be able to thank us for the decision we made.

We're on to the motion. Well, I wish we could go on to the motion, because the other issue is actually over with.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

I was only going to make a suggestion. We Googled him and that's why we knew what it looked like. But in the future, if we got his bio and background ahead of time, it would be easier to make the decision.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Merrifield]

Yes. As soon as it's referred to the committee, it's sent out to the committee so that you have the information.

On the notice of motion, would you like to present your motion, Ms. Priddy?