Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 29th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Okay.

Well, is there another point? I'm sorry, I want to make sure I have everybody.

All right. Having heard that--and I appreciate that, colleagues; I think that's the most productive and efficient way to move--then I would suggest that at this moment in time the meeting is finished for today because we are moving to legislation, Bill C-54. We will in fact listen to any members. You can contact me. We'll make sure that we are prepared to deal with your motions when in fact they come up.

Is there one final comment?

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

On a point of clarification, Chair, are we suggesting that Thursday's meeting and Tuesday's meeting would be on Bill C-54? Is that where we're headed, at least two meetings, or are we taking more?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Let's hope that's all it takes.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

But I'm suggesting at least those two.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Just for my colleagues' information and perhaps others, I will openly admit that I have thought about calling extra meetings. We have four weeks left. As is the case, sometimes we have a week go by where we really don't have too much to do, and as is the nature of Parliament, sometimes we get quite a demand before us.

At this point in time, I'm just going to wait to see how it goes. It certainly seems that it would be Thursday and Tuesday, potentially next Thursday as well. If it looks like it's that tight, I will make a suggestion that we hold an extra meeting or two, just to see if we can get done the business that we need to get done for Canadians.

Since we're going to Thursday right now, does anybody else have any other ideas for witnesses for Thursday? Right now I'm suggesting the Chief Electoral Officer. Of course the minister will be here at the beginning of the meeting and the Chief Electoral Officer for the second half. Is there anybody else? Perhaps you could contact me and we'll make sure that....

My suggestion is that this is what we'll do on Thursday, and on Tuesday we'll go into debate on it.

Is there any further business from colleagues? Mr. Reid, please.

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

Mr. Chair, there was a letter submitted to all members of the committee, I think today--am I right?--a draft letter to Mr. Mayrand from us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That was distributed at the last meeting.

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

Has that been dealt with?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

No.

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

Could we not simply either agree to deal with it or make amendments and then get it on its way?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Could I ask if members have a copy of that? I'm hearing that some members do not have that copy with them today. If everybody has a copy of it in both official languages, I'm more than happy to deal with it. Otherwise, Mr. Reid, perhaps we could deal with it first. Does everybody have a copy of this letter? Okay, then shall we deal with it?

Please, Mr. Lukiwski.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Chair, just quickly, you had asked a few moments ago whether we had any suggestions for further witnesses. I hadn't really thought of it, frankly, until now. Could we, say, have a deadline of one o'clock or three o'clock or four o'clock, sometime this afternoon, to let me think about whether...? It seems appropriate right now that just those two witnesses would be fine, but....

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

That's a reasonable suggestion. Thank you.

The suggestion is that we go with the Chief Electoral Officer and the minister for Thursday. If anyone wants to submit any witnesses, we can deal with that on Thursday for Tuesday's meeting. That way we'll all be here.

On the letter to Monsieur Mayrand, are there any comments, or do I have permission to send it out?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much.

For the record, we have permission to send this letter as it is, and we will do that today.

Is there any further business?

Seeing none, thank you, colleagues. We'll see you on Thursday.

The meeting is adjourned.