Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 16th, 2011

Evidence of meeting #49 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was costs.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Question of Privilege Relating to the Failure of the Government to Fully Provide the Documents as Ordered by the House

Question of Privilege Relating to the Premature Disclosure on November 18, 2010, of the Confidential Draft Report on the Prebudget Consultations of the Standing Committee on Finance by an Employee of the Member for Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar.

Committee Business

MPs speaking

Pierre Paquette

Claude DeBellefeuille

Scott Armstrong

Harold Albrecht

Also speaking

Rob Walsh Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel, House of Commons

Suzanne Legault Information Commissioner, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Andrea Neill Assistant Commissioner, Complaints Resolution and Compliance, Office of the Information Commissioner of Canada

Don Head Commissioner, Correctional Service of Canada

Catherine Kane Director General and Senior General Counsel, Criminal Law Policy Section, Department of Justice

Mel Cappe As an Individual

Alister Smith Associate Secretary, Treasury Board Secretariat

Donna Dériger Acting Senior Director, Financial Management Strategies, Costing and Charging, Financial Management Sector, Office of the Comptroller General, Treasury Board Secretariat

Kevin Page Parliamentary Budget Officer, Library of Parliament

Sahir Khan Assistant Parliamentary Budget Officer, Expenditure and Revenue Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Library of Parliament

Mostafa Askari Assistant Parliamentary Budget Officer, Economic and Fiscal Analysis, Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, Library of Parliament

Conservative

Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON

I agree with you.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

That's something that your government has cut.

Conservative

Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON

No, no.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Oh, yes, yes.

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

Absolutely not.

Conservative

Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON

Mr. Godin, the national anti-drug strategy, the national crime prevention strategy--all of them are there to help young people and make sure they don't get caught in the law--

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

If you look at Bill C-21, the information you're giving us here is--

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

If I could just respond to that particular issue, the Prime Minister just announced--

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Let's have one at a time, please.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

I'm sorry, I have another question. It's my question.

Bill C-21 has no detail--

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

But you've put some false information on the record, and that's--

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Sorry, Mr. Toews--

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

Mr. Chair, if I could just appeal to you that there has been some false information put on the record--

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Can't you just be a little bit polite, Mr. Toews? I was not asking you for the--

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Order, order. Let's stop for a second.

Mr. Toews, go ahead very quickly, and then we'll get back to the questioning by Mr. Godin.

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

Our government has committed over $40 million for youth programming and anti-gang programming in this last fiscal year. That's the greatest amount that any government has ever put forward, so to suggest that it has been cut is wrong.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Let's go back to the question.

March 16th, 2011 / 2:30 p.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

With regard to Bill C-21, here is the explanation: “No detailed cost information is available because the financing impacts will be minimal.”

Because it's minimal, you cannot give us any numbers?

Conservative

Vic Toews Conservative Provencher, MB

Well, Mr. Chair, the answer is in the same way as I pointed out in the beginning. Last year at this time, my department said there would be 1,300 new prisoners in the system; suddenly we only have 500 new prisoners. If you reduce these issues to a smaller scale, it's virtually impossible to determine.

The officials are here. They can answer those questions as to why they made that specific conclusion.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Mr. Chair, with respect to the estimate on the F-35 airplane, what's the difference? There is an amount that the government gives, and then we hear something outside that. What is the number?

Conservative

Rob Nicholson Conservative Niagara Falls, ON

Again, we're addressing the crime bills. This is why we are here.

Presumably you may have to look at that, but--

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

You're outside of the scope of that. Thank you.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

Do we still have time?

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

No, that's it. We are finished at the bottom of the hour, so we'll excuse our witnesses.

Liberal

Scott Brison Liberal Kings—Hants, NS

Mr. Chair, given the amount of information provided to--