Health Committee on Nov. 1st, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

First of all, this meeting is public. If at any time a member wants us to go in camera, they can move a motion.

I want to remind members that item number one on the agenda is to submit suggestions for the draft report on the opiate crisis to committee staff by 5 p.m. today.

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Chairman, I was just reviewing the committee business, and unless I've missed something, we haven't set down the final day for adding an extra meeting to discuss the report. This is the only part of the agenda where the opioid study is mentioned. I'm wondering if we should nail down now the extra meeting on Monday, November 14, that we were discussing.

I think before we leave the opioid study, we should pick the time and date of that extra meeting if we're going to have one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

We're open for discussion on that. We've had members say they are not available on that date.

Is there any debate on that or any comments? Will we have a meeting on November 14?

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I don't anticipate a problem, but if we just have one two-hour meeting on the Tuesday, I think there's a good chance we will not finalize the report. Given that we want to have that in the hands of the minister....

The other option, I guess, is to extend that meeting until the report is done. I've seen other meetings do that before, where we just stay. That might mean the meeting on Tuesday the 15th goes three or four hours.

On Monday the 14th, is there not a time the vast majority of people can make it? We don't have to have unanimity; as long as the majority of people on the committee are here, we have quorum.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Oliver.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'd like to echo Mr. Davies's comments. This is an important study. We identified it as a crisis in Canada. We dropped our committee agenda to deal with this work, and I'm surprised we can't find an extra two hours as a committee to discuss this on the 14th, and to review the report, and get material ready to be part of the national discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Kang.

[Darshan Singh Kang, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

I echo both of these gentlemen's words.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

All right. Let's schedule the meeting for Monday the 14th in the afternoon. Does that work for everybody?

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I understand what they are saying and that's not a problem. We can look at having an extra meeting, but I have a committee meeting on Monday afternoon already, and it feels as if I'm being discriminated against a little. I'm not choosing not to be here. I can't be here because I have another committee, so it's not fair to exclude me from the table due to my other commitments and expectations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

I wasn't aware of that, but I'll take that into—

Mr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

There are going to be challenges for me on that. I would recommend another option, because we're assuming we could get it all done within those two hours as well.

When I looked at the potential schedule, also a reasonable time to put in a dissenting report, because I think there could be some recommendations, for example, where Don would like to have one recommendation and we would probably not be okay with that recommendation, and vice versa.

I would go to a fallback. As I said it would be easy to write a letter and go to that instead of going through a full, formal report because of the logistics of getting it done. I see the timeline is going to be very tight anyway.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Kang.

[Darshan Singh Kang, Liberal, Calgary Skyview, AB]

I think we could have a meeting on Monday morning.

As far as the letter is concerned, we had a discussion on that before, and we have passed that point. I think we should be aiming for the report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Let's stick to the question about the meeting. Are there any other comments?

Mr. Ayoub.

[Ramez Ayoub, Liberal, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I would like to echo all that has been said. I'm sorry for Mr. Carrie, but we already talked about the letter versus the report, and now we're talking about meetings. I came out yesterday from another committee where we were around that table for six hours straight just to make sure we did the job, so I think we could find two hours on Monday, November 14, in the morning. There's no problem. We can find somewhere, I'm sure.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Are there any other committees that meet on Monday morning? No? So Monday morning would be the best time.

I would point out that under Standing Order 106(4), any four members of the committee can send a letter to the chair and cause a meeting to be held, and then the chair calls it, which means that meetings can be called even if not everybody can make it.

Rachael, I hear you, but it's not discriminatory to call a meeting that not everybody can make—that's why we sub in—but I agree with you that we should be looking for the most convenient time for everybody to meet. I think we should call the meeting for Monday morning. That gives everybody enough time. There are no other committee conflicts. We can take two hours then, and we have the further two hours on the Tuesday.

By the way, I would also suggest there's a chance that even that meeting on the Tuesday may have to be extended in order to finish the meeting. I'm not predicting that will happen. I haven't seen the report, and it's not a long one, but I know that I have 36 recommendations. That's how many I'm submitting, and we need to have discussion on them.

If any of you have been to one of these meetings before, you know that if people want to talk to every recommendation, it can be six hours before we complete the report. I think we really have to be aware of this, schedule these two meetings, and be clear that on Tuesday we may have to stay extra as well to get it done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Okay. Will it be on Monday morning?

Mr. Oliver.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Because of flights and whatnot, could I propose 10 to 12 on Monday morning, or 10 to 1? Is that a reasonable time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

That's perfect.

All right. We have agreement on that. We're going to have the meeting at 10 o'clock on the morning of Monday, November 14.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I guess we could all do 10 to 1, because there are no other committees.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I do have another meeting that I'm organizing, from 11 on, with all kinds of outside participation, so I'll be able to make part of the meeting but certainly not all of it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

We're probably not going to get everybody. I think we'll go with 10 o'clock on Monday morning.

Dr. Carrie, we hope you can be there for as much of it as you can.

Is that all right? It's at 10 o'clock on Monday morning, November 14, for a two-hour meeting and maybe longer.

Mr. Oliver.