Evidence of meeting #32 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was person.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Marcel Blanchet  Chief Electoral Officer & President of the Commission for Electoral Representation, Élections Québec
Murray Mollard  Executive Director, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
Tina Marie Bradford  Lawyer, As an Individual
Jim Quail  Executive Director, British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre

1 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Exactly. If we say they need two identification cards, nothing will stop them from taking them from somebody else and bringing them in. Under what they were proposing, or we were maybe proposing, they will have done it anyway.

1 p.m.

Lawyer, As an Individual

Tina Marie Bradford

Exactly. Unless you require everyone to have a driver's licence, which just isn't practical, I don't see how you can fix some of these problems.

1 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

If you look at medicare, for example, in New Brunswick, we don't have our picture on the medicare card. How many people lose their licence at the age of 75 or 80? That's how many people we could eliminate with those. It was a good point about the passport because it's not controlled by the government.

1 p.m.

Lawyer, As an Individual

Tina Marie Bradford

Precisely, and how many people don't get a driver's licence at all?

1 p.m.

Executive Director, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association

Murray Mollard

I just want to make one point on the suggestion that there be a space on the statutory declaration to have someone vouch for another. You could have that; I just wouldn't want it to be a prerequisite for that piece of identification being valid. If the lawyer makes some other reference, it's fine to include a space in the declaration or the form that allows the person who has taken the oath to provide the information they've gathered. That would suffice.

1 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Thank you, Monsieur Godin.

Witnesses, on behalf of the committee, I want to thank you for joining us today and for assisting us in our research. In particular, I want to thank you for your dedication to Canadians in your area and making sure that Canadians all across the country are well served. That has not gone unnoticed.

Mr. Mollard, Mr. Quail, and Ms. Bradford, we very much appreciate your taking the time this morning. I don't like the word “dismiss”, but you are in fact dismissed.

Committee members, I want to move very quickly. Very briefly, there are just a couple of issues, and we'll adjourn the meeting. We're still in public, but we're short on time. I remind members, there is no meeting this Thursday. We do have a number of witnesses coming on December 5. Some have not confirmed, but many have.

I was not clear at the last meeting, colleagues. The member from the New Democratic Party requested that representatives from the Canadian Federation of Students appear before the committee as well.

Is it the wish of the committee that we invite them to appear, most likely with the other groups on Tuesday, December 5? Is it the wish of this committee?

1 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

1 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

We will make that invitation.

Mr. Reid, please.

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON

Would it be with other witnesses?

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Of course.

1:05 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

I appreciate that.

We will be talking about the universities, and that will give us witnesses, which is why I brought the question; that was the reason for it. I didn't see anybody raising the question, and I thought we should hear about it.

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Colleagues, I agree with that, and I appreciate that information. We will make that invitation to them.

May I plant the seed right now that I would like the cooperation, as we've always had with this committee, for the possibility of extending the meetings to 2 o'clock. That would give us three hours for each meeting next week to deal properly with witnesses as well as move forward on this bill. I just want to plant that seed.

It's my thought as well that potentially there will be an extra meeting next week. Please, if you have any significant disagreements, obviously I want your opinion and your cooperation. You may speak to me now or afterwards.

I'm thinking we're going to extend Tuesday's meeting and discuss the rest of it on Tuesday.

1:05 p.m.

Liberal

Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC

Can you feed us?

1:05 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

I will be more than happy to feed the committee. If that's all it's going to take, Monsieur Proulx, I will feed you well.

At this point in time, we will have a meeting on Tuesday. We will extend that meeting, and we will bring in something to eat. I appreciate that from the bottom of my heart. This is important business. If we need to extend the other meetings, we'll talk about that on Tuesday.

Is there any further business?

Merci beaucoup.

The meeting is adjourned.