Yes.
Evidence of meeting #22 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #22 for Health in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
I suggest that it's a very long list of witnesses. Can you please clarify the actual amendment?
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Mr. Chair, do you want me to read it again?
I would like to amend the motion by requesting that Dr. Supriya Sharma, the chief medical adviser, and Dr. Marc Berthiaume, the director of the bureau of medical sciences, be invited to present in this meeting and that they be given the same time as the NACI experts. Also, I think we should hear from outside experts as well. I have a list that should be considered.
March 5th, 2021 / 12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
A point of order, Mr. Chair.
Aren't we supposed to receive the amendments in both languages?
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Monsieur Généreux, members are free to move motions from the floor. At that time, we rely on translation services to convey the amendment in the other language.
Ms. Sidhu, your amendment to add members from the Department of Health is good, but then you go on to say “I think”, and I'm not sure that's part of your amendment. If you have another list to add, I don't know if you want to add that as a different amendment later on, or....
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
Sure, Mr. Chair. That is for consideration. I will send that list to the clerk.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I'm not quite clear on that. If Ms. Sidhu is moving a motion to alter the witnesses—by the way, I think the ones from Health Canada are good—I don't think it's appropriate to say that we'll be sent a bunch of other names for consideration. The motion has to be certain. It has to stipulate what it is. I can't vote on two specific names and a list of other people to be considered. We need clarity on exactly what the motion is.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
John Barlow Conservative Foothills, AB
On a point of order on that same point, Mr. Chair, I do believe we have a bit of a gentlemen's agreement, or something in the Standing Orders, on how many witnesses we can have per meeting. The witness list that Ms. Sidhu read off is quite significant. If she is going to propose additional meetings on this issue, then that is more than just an amendment.
Like Mr. Davies, I am fine with her first group of additional witnesses at the meeting, but to list off a dozen other doctors goes far beyond what I think we as a committee have agreed to in terms of the number of witnesses we would have per panel.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Thank you, Mr. Barlow.
We're getting into debate here.
Ms. Sidhu, I would recommend that you make your amendment end at the point where you list the Department of Health officials, or if we want to add additional witnesses for some reason, perhaps that could be another amendment. I think that will keep it manageable. We also have to be cognizant that we have only a certain amount of time and having more witnesses makes that problematic.
In my view, the number of witnesses for a meeting on COVID-19 is actually prescribed in the House order of October 26 as being one witness per hour per party. However, our practice in these special meetings, especially those called in this way, has been to set that aside and to go with a list of witnesses as agreed to in that particular motion.
The amendment, as I understand it, by Ms. Sidhu is that we add that the Public Health Agency of Canada officials be given the same amount of time to speak. Ms. Sidhu gave a list of those officials to invite.
Are we all clear on what the amendment is at this point?
Mr. Davies.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Sonia Sidhu Liberal Brampton South, ON
I would like to amend it by requesting that Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser, and Dr. Marc Berthiaume, director of the bureau of medical sciences, be invited to present in this meeting and that they be given the same time as the NACI representatives.
12:15 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Chair, may I just ask for clarification? Would those two people specifically be the ones who could explain the Health Canada rationale? Is that the purpose of having these two?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
I think we can now carry on the discussion on Ms. Sidhu's amendment.
Mr. Thériault, do you have any comments on the amendment?
12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Luc Thériault Bloc Montcalm, QC
Yes, Mr. Chair.
First of all, after the last intervention, I'm not too sure anymore. I understand what's being said about Health Canada, but there was also a list of independent experts.
I would just like to raise the fact that we took an hour to decide whether we were going to question the representatives of the two bodies concerned by the main motion for one hour or two hours. Now we're adding a series of people, and we think we can do that in two hours. According to the Conservative motion, I thought we needed two hours to question representatives from the two bodies.
I have no problem adding Health Canada officials to the list of witnesses, but after that, I don't see why we wouldn't need several more hours to hear from all the other experts. I don't understand that reasoning, and obviously I would like to see the list before I vote.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ron McKinnon
Mr. Thériault, I'd like to make a clarification. The other experts aren't included. It's just the experts from the Department of Health.