Evidence of meeting #8 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gifts.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay.
On Tuesday, we have the minister or conflict of interest; and then on Thursday, Senate appointees for one hour, Mr. Christopherson's motion, and Mr. Chan's motion. Then there's a working week in the ridings.
The week after that, we are at Tuesday, March 8. We will do caucus reports, reporting back to this committee. I don't think that will take two hours. We could invite a couple of witnesses for the second hour. I know the NDP has one. We could maybe set a deadline for people to provide us with a witness list for that meeting and for the other two later in March.
Why don't we say that by the end of that meeting on March 8 there be a deadline for proposing witnesses for March 22 and 24?
1 p.m.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
I do not have a specific suggestion for witnesses. I have a suggestion that our long-suffering analyst look into someone for us.
One of the issues that has come up is the issue of child care facilities. To me, as we're changing buildings and then changing back, the issue of where architecturally you would put some of the stuff to make the environment more friendly for new parents, moms in particular, could be relevant. Perhaps it would be helpful to find someone who could comment on whether we'll be dealing with this as we go over to the West Block and whether we can deal with it in the plans for when we come back.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Along that line, I think someone would like the day care manager as a witness, because we had so many questions about day care.
1 p.m.
An hon. member
[Inaudible--Editor] and a few more.
1 p.m.
Liberal
1 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Mr. Chair, there's another natural thing to do in terms of witnesses. Obviously our analyst provided us with a great report, where he indicated a number of other jurisdictions that have made some changes specifically to their House schedules. Even just generally he's shown us good examples that are good cross-references with ours. I know that the provincial ones specifically were Ontario and B.C., and I believe Quebec was the third one.
Our analyst also provided us with some information on a number of other Commonwealth countries. Particularly where they've made changes to their sitting hours or sitting days, their officials would be obvious witnesses for us, I would think. I would also suggest that we maybe ask our analyst to suggest some other witnesses that he feels would be beneficial for us.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Hold on a minute. We'll brainstorm two things.
First of all, we'll definitely direct the analysts to do that and come up with some names. For the ones we have today, I'll get a list right now and then we'll see how many of those we could accommodate on March 8 and which ones we will punt to March 22.
Mr. Masse.
1 p.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I have a quick suggestion. Pierre Parent from human resources is involved in this and would understand some of the logistics that are necessary.
1 p.m.
Liberal
1 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Just for clarity, Mr. Chair, you were indicating that any suggestions for witnesses that we as members have would be brought for March 8?
1 p.m.
Liberal
1 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
What I'm saying is that you're saying additional suggestions for future witnesses should be brought by March 8.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Anita Vandenbeld Liberal Ottawa West—Nepean, ON
If we are looking for witnesses quickly, there's Equal Voice, a multipartisan organization about women in politics. I think that's one. Nancy Peckford is the executive director.
For international witnesses, certainly, there's Julie Ballington, who did all the work on family-friendly parliaments with the IPU, the Inter-Parliamentary Union. She's now with UN Women and based in New York.
I'll suggest and put forward a number of names, but these are just in case we're looking at some people quickly.
1 p.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I was just going to note that we're discussing witness lists on the record, and I think it's something that we agreed we would want to discuss in camera.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, but we have enough here so that we can make a decision for March 8. I'm not going to go in camera for a couple of minutes here, because I don't think these are controversial.
We have five potentials. I don't think we can handle all of these on March 8, so we'll put some of them off. I'll give you the five, and then you suggest to me which we would use in the second hour on March 8: Pierre, from human resources; Public Works, as Mr. Reid said, on the design of the buildings, like where a day care, etc., would be; Equal Voice, and IPU in New York; and the day care. I think a high priority would be whoever can make decisions on the day care management.
Mr. Richards.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I would suggest that where you're going accurately fits with what I saw in committee. There were a lot of questions about that, so obviously if we were to talk to a couple of people, one would be the day care manager, the person who runs the day care. The other one would be, as Mr. Reid suggested, someone who could give us a little information about how we could make sure that we're structuring the changes being made to the buildings to suit that kind of thing, since that seemed to be a topic that gathered a lot of interest from the members of the committee at the first meeting.
We've had suggestions from other parties, so probably until all the parties have had a chance to put witnesses in, we would probably hold off on those witnesses, right? Then all parties have the opportunity to suggest their witnesses. In the meantime, the analysts could come forward with some suggestions as well, including some of those other jurisdictions. I think that would probably be a good way to proceed on March 8. I think that makes sense.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, so how's this for a plan? On March 8, if we can get them, the second hour would be someone from Public Works, someone who has authority over the design of the buildings, and the day care, someone who has authority over the day care.
Then we would punt these to the end-of-March meetings: Pierre Parent, Equal Voice, Julie Ballington, the ones the clerk comes up with from other jurisdictions, plus the witnesses from any of the committee members as presented to us before March 8. Is that understandable for everyone?
