Evidence of meeting #9 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 meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
On that one, Mr. Chair, were there not two or three other appointees? I see we only have one name. Why is that?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
He was the only one available that day. The other ones are later in the schedule only because they weren't available now. We had wanted to have them both at once, actually, so we'll have another hour there. We talked about having committee business—Mr. Christopherson's motion—in that hour, or we could put something else in there.
For March 8, we were thinking of moving Elections Canada there, right?
As you see on the schedule, we tentatively have another order in council appointee, and initiatives towards our study, but Elections Canada is available that day. They're not available a lot of other days, so my suggestion is that we actually put Elections Canada in there. Otherwise, I think it's way into April when they could come.
Then we'd move those other two items later on.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Mr. Chairman, how do you view the time sensitivity of Elections Canada?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
It's just a briefing on the most recent election. It probably would be good for us to have that knowledge as we look forward to electoral changes and things coming up, but it's not overly—
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Well, exactly. I only ask because we're in the beginning of a four-year majority term. We don't want to get too far away from it. We want to deal with it when it's fresh, but given that there are things pushing against it—i.e., bringing in that witness—it seems to me that the priority would be going with that witness and pushing Elections Canada off, even by a month or two, if we have to. We have time on our side on that file.
Believe me, there's a whole lot of work to be done on that issue. Normally what happens is that the Chief Electoral Officer returns with a whole series of very time-consuming recommendations that we need to go through. That briefing is just the beginning of a rather longer process flowing from the last election.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
My understanding is that of the reports he does, this is a factual one. Then sometime around June he'll do the one with all of his recommendations.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That's where we roll up our sleeves. This is a courtesy visit or a background visit. I would suggest that if there's anything within what we're looking at that is flexible, this is something we could move around without losing anything.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Is there anyone else on that point?
Okay. We'll leave March 8 as you have it on your schedule, with the order in council appointment. Then we'll have the caucus reports on the family-friendly initiative before we forget what our caucuses said. I assume each party will have someone bringing that report from their caucus, or bringing someone from their caucus.
The next day would be Thursday, the 10th. We have the minister for the first hour. Then we could have initiatives toward the.... Did the Elections Canada person want an hour or two hours? Okay, it was two hours.
We have to discuss the witness list. We could do it on the 8th, because the 8th is the deadline for you to submit ideas for witnesses. After the family-friendly caucus reports to our committee, the clerk will have a huge list of witnesses that we have to winnow down. We have to decide how many meetings we want witnesses for and pick the witnesses from that list. If we have time, we can do that March 8. If not, then we can do that in the second hour on March 10.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
The minister is only indicating one hour of availability on the March 10. Is that what we understood?
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Okay.
It's disappointing, obviously. We asked for two hours, and I don't think that's an unreasonable request, given the magnitude of some of the changes that we're talking about here. I'm sure there will be a lot of questions for her.
Could we not at least have the officials remain for the last hour of that meeting so that we could put any other questions that might be necessary to the officials at least?
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That's not unusual.
The last government was adamant, and the Liberals before them, usually, on the one hour. That was the window we got. It wouldn't be unusual, though, for us to have the minister for an hour and then continue with officials for a second hour. I'm pointing out that it wasn't unusual to do that in previous times.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We can ask the minister. From talking to the clerk, I know there certainly wasn't any suggestion of that by the minister, but we'll ask.
If not, we'll leave what we have on the schedule you have in front of you. As for the witness list for initiatives for the family-friendly subject, if we haven't finished that on Tuesday, then we'll winnow down the list. If we have done that on Tuesday, we'll pick a couple of witnesses to see if they can come on that Thursday if we're not having ministerial staff.
Does that sound okay to everyone? Okay.
Now we're on to March 22. March 22 is budget day, which traditionally is in the afternoon. Normally committees often carry on their meetings in the morning.
What's the will of the committee for budget day?
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
It's highly unlikely that we'll have this room available to us. They tend to take rooms for budget lock-ups, so we'd have to move off site.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
That's right.
Does the committee want to meet in another building on budget day or not?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay. We will carry on that meeting.
If we were doing that, we would have witnesses for our study that day. We also have to decide when we're going to schedule the estimates. I think we only need an hour for that. Traditionally I don't think we've taken more than an hour. We'd have the clerk—do the Clerk and the Speaker normally come?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Yes. Whether that's a busy day for the Clerk and the Speaker, I'm not sure, but we can ask them and see, and if not, let's try them the other day that week. That's one hour on the 22nd—whichever hour is more convenient for the Clerk and/or the Speaker to come before us on the estimates—and in the other hour, we'd hear witnesses. If they can't come that day, we'll hear witnesses for the whole day, and on the 24th we will have an hour for the Speaker and/or the Clerk on the estimates, if they're available.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I'm kind of overhearing a little of the conversation you're having, and I recognize the problem that would be there as well.
Maybe I could make this recommendation. We are hoping to have the second of the appointees for the Senate advisory board on March 8 in the first hour, correct? So that we're not running into this trouble with the deadline for the estimates, could we maybe consider using that second hour of that day for the Clerk and the Speaker, and then the 22nd would become a planning day for the family initiative study.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
For our whole business in the second hour of the 10th, we would have the officials stay back when the minister is not willing to be here, and then the 22nd would become the time when we would discuss caucus reports and plan for witnesses. We could just make that a full meeting of planning for the study, and then begin on the 24th.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, and if the officials aren't available, we can move forward some of that—
Conservative
Liberal
