Evidence of meeting #51 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 decision.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
I know you would have. I know you're full of good intentions, except that in the last 15 minutes you've given much more to the Conservative members, and I don't appreciate that, Mr. Chair.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I'll certainly share with you. You are a standing member of our committee. It has been our practice whenever we have witnesses for a longer period of time, two hours in this case, that we'll do three rounds. We then try to give those who did not have a chance to ask questions a chance to ask questions. If there's a small amount left, you know my standard practice is to try to do some one-off questions around the table to try to finish the time.
There is no, what do we call them, routine motions at the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. It's one of the committees that does not have routine motions. This came by way of a vote among the members of this committee that there aren't routine proceedings. I'm using precedent and I'm using standard practice that this chair uses to share. I recognize there are some members at the table today--
Noon
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Those were not one-off questions. That was five minutes you gave to Mr. Young. You gave five minutes to Mr. Armstrong, and now we're running out the clock for sure.
Noon
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I do see it is noon.
We will excuse the witness.
We will be back here at one o'clock.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
I will call the meeting to order.
I'll give a minute or so for the cameras to be taken from the room, or to become less obvious.
We have returned from our suspension. We have Mary Corkery, from the group Kairos.
Ms. Corkery, I understand you have just a couple of opening words, and then we'll go to questioning. Welcome today, by the way.
March 18th, 2011 / 1 p.m.
Mary Corkery Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I was offered a minute to explain Kairos. Kairos, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives, is a coalition formed by eleven churches and church-related organizations to carry out their justice work in Canada and overseas. We have a significant program of justice work focused on, in particular, indigenous communities and migrant workers in Canada. Our program overseas is focused at this point on human rights and sustainability.
There you go.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
There we go.
Mr. McKay, are you starting? Seven minutes for you, sir.
1 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Thank you, Chair.
Thank you, Ms. Corkery, for coming.
Kairos has a long funding history with the Government of Canada, I understand some 35 years. You've probably put in a number of applications for funding over those years. And you have had a pretty good, I would say, working relationship with CIDA up until recently.
Could you tell us when the application for funding was put in and what indications you had that you were actually going to be getting the funding?
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
I would just say that we still, to our knowledge, have a good relationship with CIDA.
We put the 2009 application in, in March 2009. We did have a back-and-forth with staff at CIDA on a number of questions regarding content, for the period between March and the end of the summer. And it got quite quiet. So we were pretty shocked when we did hear that it was being de-funded completely.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
I received a phone call at about 2:30 on November 30, 2009, and was told that the program would no longer be funded. I asked at that point, none of it? I was told, no, not any of it. So I was quite shocked, and I asked, why are we being de-funded? I was told, It has been decided that you don't meet CIDA priorities.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Were they specific as to what CIDA priorities your group didn't...?
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
No, at that particular moment the woman I was speaking to said, “I have no further information”--on any question I had. So we had no information for about a week after that, except that something appeared in The Globe and Mail that said we didn't meet priorities, that new themes had been introduced.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
Who I was speaking to at CIDA?
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
I do. It was Victoria Sutherland.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Okay. Did she give you any indication at the time that you didn't comply with CIDA's priorities?
1:05 p.m.
Executive Director, Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives (KAIROS)
Yes. She said it had been decided that Kairos didn't meet CIDA priorities.