Evidence of meeting #29 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was money.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Newton—North Delta, BC
There is a group from Vancouver that I would like to propose.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I think the list has been cut off, but we'll talk afterwards, Sukh, if you have a second.
On May 15, the Thursday, it was agreed as well that we should try to bring back the two witnesses on the financing board: the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and the Council of Chief Executives. The second hour then would be clause-by-clause on Bill C-362.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
They'll be there.
I just talked to the clerks about phase two, which involves teleconferencing with Ireland, Great Britain, and others, as well as other provinces. That takes some time. We could get them working on the teleconferencing the week after that, which would then be into the first part of June.
We then agreed to have another subcommittee meeting in June, because we need to figure out when we can get the report together. It's going to be noted that we're going to send an invitation to the minister to come for an hour on May 27, if it's possible. That would be the suggestion.
Conservative
Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK
I don't think the minister will solve anything at committee. He was here for two hours, and it got repetitious about the $54 billion. We saw it again today. I'm beginning to wonder whether it's a waste of good time. We might as well move this report and try to get it to the House. That's probably where it rightfully should be debated.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
If the minister is busy, he's busy, but we're going to send the invitation for May 27. The other thing is that we will be reporting some of the recommendations that the researchers have talked about. We're going to be dealing with that in the second hour.
Conservative
Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK
As long as it doesn't hold up the report. We're not going to hold the report up for the minister if he can't make it. It would be nice to get back to where we were, and that's the employability study.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I know we did employability for a couple of years and it became impressed in our thinking.
Liberal
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
If I can add to that, there have been questions that we, as a committee, have now that we didn't have when the minister was here, and issues have been raised. I think if we can get them clarified and get answers to those, it will help us in the long run so we won't have to be wasting time.
Conservative
Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK
I don't know what you were hearing, but I heard about the $54 billion over and over and over again.
Liberal
Conservative
Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK
From what I could see, the biggest question today that the officials could answer is the “may” and the “shall”. I think it's worthwhile to have the officials here when we go clause-by-clause. But as to what happened the other day--
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
We're not going clause-by-clause. This isn't our bill.
NDP
Denise Savoie NDP Victoria, BC
There's also the percentage that was raised, and there seemed to be some confusion.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
The confusion was just with the witnesses, not with the bill.
We're going to make the requests. And that is going to be followed by one meeting to talk about the definition of poverty, as we all discussed previously.
These are the minutes of the meeting. They give you an indication of where we're going over the next two or three weeks.
I would ask that we accept the fourth report.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
So deemed. Thank you very much.
I hope to see you at the alliance council.
The meeting is adjourned.