Human Resources Committee on May 30th, 2006

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

No, sorry, I understand exactly how it works; I've been a member of Parliament for ten years. The question is pretty simple--yes or no?

Do the members have the final signature? In my riding of Bourassa, this works extremely well. The officials do a terrific job, but I decide at the end of the day if it is accepted or not.

Are you telling me that the department now wants us to merely be part of the consultation process, or whether we are the ones with the final say on program-related decisions? I am not talking about all programs, only this program in particular.

[Robert Smith]

MPs are asked to concur, not approve. There is a difference.

In the concurrence, we do an assessment, as you know, and we make a list. You've done it for many years. If you for some reason took the assessment and wanted to put everybody at the bottom of the list on the top of the list, to change the principles of the priorities and the assessment, we would then probably have a difference of opinion. But if you somewhat agreed with our assessment and you asked for some changes that didn't change the principles of the list, then we would have a concurrence.

The fact is that if you are asking for the principles of what we've done in assessing the list to be thrown out--

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

No, that is not at all what I was saying.

I try to speak in both languages so that I'm clear.

My question is simple. When I sign, I must decide on the number of people who will be hired for each project. For some projects, we know it makes no sense, we say zero, we cross it out and that is the end of it. At the end of the day, this is precisely what you accept, because it is our duty to make these recommendations to you.

[Robert Smith]

Yes.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Is that all coming to an end? Are you wanting to eliminate the only program for which members, regardless of their political party, can contribute directly to the situation and quality of life of people in their ridings?

It's as simple as that.

[Robert Smith]

We have no plans to get MPs out of the process. That's a decision that could be made, but the fact is we're not moving towards that. If you sign a list, that's the list that's signed.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

That's it.

[Robert Smith]

Point final.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Thank you.

That was simple.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

I do want to thank all the witnesses for attending today. Thank you very much for coming out to answer our questions.

We're going to take a quick break, and then we're going to get right back into the motions. We'll give the witnesses time to leave the table, and then we'll get into the motions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We have about 20 minutes left.

One of the things we discussed going into the meeting today was that we would deal with some of the motions we have before us. If you look at our orders of the day, we do have about 13 issues on the list.

Perhaps I'll draw your attention to the proposed schedule for the committee for some discussion now. I believe there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of seven or eight motions before us right now. There is a list of the order they have come in, which you should have as well.

To answer Mr. Regan's question, the list of the order in which they came is this list here. What we've tried to do is to match up motions with people who are coming in to speak.

Today we thought we'd address the two motions with regard to EI as well as employability issues. We have suggested that on Thursday, June 1, we will look at the two motions from Mr. Martin on social economy and old age review. Then for next Tuesday we have proposed looking at motions from Mr. Lessard on the pilot project.

I understand, having talked to Mr. Lessard today, that he would like to bump that up. We thought that would make sense since we were going to have the minister in to talk about that, but we will work with the committee and deal with whatever the committee wants to deal with.

You have some proposals there. We do want to make sure that we deal with all the motions over the next couple of weeks. I know there were some questions that our clerk fielded from various members of Parliament and maybe from the whips' offices. So I do want to put that out there right now.

Mr. Lessard, I know that one of the things you're suggesting is to deal with the pilot project sooner rather than later.

The question for the committee is how we want to proceed from here.

Yes, Mr. Regan?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chairman, I would hope we could deal with the motions that had been proposed for today relatively quickly, although I do have some questions about the motions regarding operational budget and travel. I'm just looking for explanations in relation to those, and why there are different ones.

But I don't see why we shouldn't deal with the pilot project proposal today as well. Hopefully we can do that fairly quickly--get through today's issues. I also think, where possible, rather than necessarily sticking to this proposal, if we are in fact moving more quickly in that last half hour provided for these things that we should do so. Eventually we should move them up.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

The suggestion is to deal with the two motions that we've suggested here. The second thing is to probably add the pilot project. Then we also want to deal with the travel budgets as well.

Are there any other comments?

Mr. Lessard, did you have a comment?

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Mr. Chairman, with your permission, I would like to make a comment. First of all, I would like to thank you for agreeing to deal with this issue immediately. I would also like to thank my colleagues.

The reason why we must make this a priority is that there is a kind of inevitability in terms of time: this is a pilot project that is coming to an end on June 4, that is to say on Sunday. As we are not meeting on Sunday, we will not be able to do anything. Moreover, I think that the department also needs a little time. The minister has placed herself in an urgent situation. In any case, the problem must be dealt with. As of Sunday, there are people who will no longer have any income until they are called back to work. That is why it is urgent and necessary to present the committee's motion to the House this week.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay, Mr. Lessard.

Now we'll have Mr. D'Amours, followed by Ms. Yelich.

[Jean-Claude D'Amours, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First of all, I completely agree with Mr. Lessard's comments. I like his motion. But I would like to move an amendment to the motion concerning an important point. I hope that you will all agree.

The motion states: “[...] that the Committee recommend to the government that it immediately renew the project in all regions, [...]”. It is a good idea to renew the pilot project, but we must specify the duration. I therefore move that we add the words “as long as there is no permanent solution implemented by the government”. The motion would then read as follows:

Given the urgency resulting from the approaching end of the Pilot Project on Increased Weeks of Employment Insurance Benefits (Pilot Project No. 6), that the Committee recommend to the government that it immediately renew the project in all regions currently included in the project as long as there is no permanent solution implemented by the government and that the Chair of the Committee report this motion to the House.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I have no objection to those terms being integrated into my motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Ms. Yelich.

[Lynne Yelich, Conservative, Blackstrap, SK]

I still would like to go back. She is doing a review; it is a private project. I think we should wait until the minister comes before us. I think it's incumbent upon us. If she's making her decision, I think we should be hearing directly from her about it. I don't think we should impose any more on this issue. I think we should try to get an answer or have her appear when she is scheduled. That's the time to do all these little extras, like what to do with the program.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

What I have heard proposed is that we deal with the two motions we were going to deal with today originally, as proposed on the schedule. Mr. Lessard would like to deal with the motion on pilot project number six, and now we have an amendment to that as well. Then, of course, we would like to deal with the travel. Is this the order the committee would like to proceed in then?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Why don't we deal with the two motions that were proposed for today. We have the notice of motion from Ms. Bonsant saying:

That the Tenth Report (Summer Career Placement Program) of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the first session of the 38th Parliament be adopted again as a report of this Committee and that the Chair do present it to the House. AND That, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the Committee request a global response from the Government.

Is there any additional discussion on this particular issue?

All right? Okay.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We'll move to the second motion by Mr. Lessard. The motion reads:

That the Third Report (Study on Employment Insurance Funds) of the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills Development, Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the first session of the 38th Parliament be adopted again as a report of this Committee and that the Chair do present it to the House. AND That, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the Committee request a global response from the Government.

We have seen a change in the rate mechanism, which will probably change some of the numbers that will come out as we move forward. Therefore, is this something we want to do, realizing that there will probably be some differences in terms of what the outcomes will be as a result of the rate mechanism that was changed last year?

Mr. Regan, do you have any comments?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chairman, it seems to me the government can account for that in its response.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay.

Are there any other comments?