Evidence of meeting #10 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was panel.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
It's like using a walkie-talkie, just the way you're holding it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Yes, it's exactly like a walkie-talkie. That was in the instructions at the beginning of the meeting today.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
When we talk about the number of people that are on each panel, I think we should be focusing on the subject matter of the panel as opposed to numbers of people and distributing numbers of people by panel. If one panel is on one issue, we should focus on putting on the people who are relevant to that panel as opposed to just trying to split it up purely on numbers.
I'll just throw that out there. That's what I think we are doing, but it's important to do that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay, thank you.
We have received good feedback from everybody. We all seem to be on the same page and have a good understanding of what the study is going to look like and the number of witnesses that we are going to have. I also have appreciated your feedback, and we're going to try as much as possible to make the adjustments that were spoken about today.
Is there anything else that you would like to ask, Justin?
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Madam Chair, I have one point. I'm sorry to prevent the end of our meeting here.
I know that we got an email earlier in the week, I believe, that listed four individuals who represent different technological solutions, and I don't see them. Maybe I'm missing it and my apologies if I am; if this is my mistake, I apologize. Just to clarify, are they on the list? I'm looking at panel two on April 28, and I don't see them included. I think that's where they fit, but I'm also not 100% sure that's where they are intended to be.
There are the names of four individuals that were sent to everybody. They seem like good suggestions, but they're not in the work plan.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Do you have the consolidated list in front of you as well? Maybe you can point them out to me by name.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
I have the names here. They are Peter Hart, Joel Rothstein, Matthew Schrader, U.S. Congressman Jamie Raskin, and Michael Doucet.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, what's on the consolidated list is only the suggestions that were provided by the members of the committee. In every study, it does occur that members of the public also suggest themselves to be called as witnesses for the committee. The email that Mr. Turnbull is referring to that was distributed to the full committee was distributed to the full members of the committee.
The consolidated witness list that we are talking about is very much the consolidated witness list of the members of this committee who proactively provided me with names by the deadline last Friday.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Correct. There have been people proactively reaching out, and there also was one PR firm that was making suggestions. We sent that out to everybody so that everybody could be aware of what suggestions were coming to us, and this was just to be transparent about what we were seeing.
Liberal
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
If I want to suggest that some of these individuals be included in that panel, should I just send an email to the clerk? Would that make sense, or do we need to agree here?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
No. I mean, everyone submitted their names of witnesses themselves. We didn't fully vet each other's witnesses in that way, so I don't think there needs to be full agreement in that sense, but the clerk can correct me if I'm wrong. However, we do have quite full panels, so the only thing I would warn about is that if anything is suggested, it should fit well with the theme of that panel that day. In the interest of things going smoothly, I think that perhaps keeping it to at least five as the maximum number would be preferred.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
That's fair. That panel, I think, has four currently. I know that some of the individuals were representatives of other virtual platforms that we might want to consider. There's Adobe, and I think the other one listed here is called Markup. I don't know all of the ins and outs of those platforms, but I think it would be useful to hear from those options as potential solutions.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Yes, please send your top choice over, and we'll try to fit it in where there's space on the panel that you just mentioned.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Madam Chair, just on that point, I think it was a lobbyist who sent over some suggestions of people who would like to hawk their products. I do see.... Mr. Turnbull is not incorrect; there are a couple of others that look to be doing the same, that already exist on the witness list. If they can't all be accommodated, perhaps it could be suggested to them that they simply send a brief that would give their pitch as to why their product would be useful. That could be another alternative.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
That's a good suggestion. I definitely think that will allow any witness.... Maybe we can have some feedback from the clerk. In previous committees and studies, we've allowed most witnesses to make a submission in writing if they cannot appear or if we cannot accommodate them.
Justin, do you have any comments on that?
The Clerk
Yes, I can confirm that anybody can submit a written brief to the committee. Any potential witness that cannot be accommodated as a witness before the committee always does have that option to submit a brief or submission to the committee to acquaint the committee with whatever thoughts he or she may have on the study that's currently before the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay, excellent.
If there are no other interventions at this time, I believe we can call this meeting to an end. Thank you so much for participating today and for all your great questions.
Take care. See you on Thursday.