Human Resources Committee on Dec. 10th, 2009

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Is it published?

[Michel Bédard]

I've been gone from the department for six years, so I don't know what they're doing right now. But certainly they have all that information and they can massage it in a myriad of ways.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I don't like massaged information.

But thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Do the analysts have a response?

[A voice]

We're still looking.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay, they're still looking.

Mr. Bédard, I want to thank you very much, once again, for taking the time out of your schedule to be here today. You can step back from the table whenever you want.

I want to remind committee members that when we come back in the new year we have Bill C-308, Mr. Lessard's bill. We have Bill C-395. We have our report on poverty, which we're still working on. And we have a motion that came forward in terms of dealing with some studies. It's motion M-386 regarding adoption and things like that.

When we come back in the new year I'm going to suggest that we have a subcommittee meeting right away to determine the order of preference of business and try to map out a plan.

I wanted to throw that out to the committee since this is our last meeting before we break for Christmas.

I see a couple of hands.

Mr. Martin and then Ms. Minna.

[Tony Martin, NDP, Sault Ste. Marie, ON]

I appreciate your putting that on the table, Chair.

I am hopeful for a couple of things when we get back. I know we have business that will be imposed on us by the House because of the priorities of committee and having to deal with bills.

The work we've done on poverty so far has been very good. I have certainly appreciated the cooperation of everybody around the table. The trip we took to western Canada was very valuable. In the new year I'll talk with everybody a bit about the opportunity I had on the Friday to visit the Aboriginal Centre of Winnipeg, which is quite phenomenal. If you get a chance and you're out there, you should go.

As we had hoped to do in this session, I would hope that when we come back we would have the Senate committees come before us and that we would look at aboriginal poverty in a more serious way. Perhaps we could consider some visits to communities that are suffering deep poverty. But perhaps we could also visit communities where they're doing innovative and positive things that are lifting people out of poverty so we could make appropriate recommendations to government around that. I hope that would be possible.

Also, I believe I still have a motion on the table to set up a subcommittee to deal with some disability issues. I think that would be a good way to deal with this new piece of work we're going to have to do on autism, which was brought forward by the member for Essex. That might be a way to actually get it done and maybe deal with some other issues that are still waiting to be addressed around the issue of people living with disabilities.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

I have on the list Ms. Minna, Mr. Komarnicki, and Mr. Lessard.

[Maria Minna, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Very quickly, I have three things. I was fortunate to be able to go to Nunavut, not officially as a member of this committee but for other business. Together with Madame Demers from the Bloc, I was able to meet with a number of organizations and visit a number of places to do with the poverty issue we're looking at. I am hoping that when we get back I might be able to give a one-pager to the committee as part of the information, The committee didn't travel there and I was able to do the work for us, so I would be happy to do that when we come back.

The other thing is that with the exception of the specific study that Mr. Martin just mentioned about the aboriginal community—which of course could be a subsection in our own report to pay some focus to it—having done what I would think are the bulk of the consultations, if not all of them, I wonder if the chair has given any direction to staff to draft a report. It would be nice to have the draft report prior to budget time, or to have at least finished the report, so there could be some thinking on the part of government and others to integrate some of the needs in that budget. Certainly it would be nice to finish it and not have it drag on. It's been going on for quite some time and I'm concerned. I would like to see it come to a positive end.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Next we have Mr. Komarnicki, Mr. Lessard, and Mr. Savage.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'm wondering, with the great deal of work we have, if we have unanimous consent to continue sitting through the....

I'm kidding.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Funny.

[An hon. member]

Absolutely.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish each and every member a merry Christmas, a happy new year, and a happy holiday.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Mr. Komarnicki, that's so sweet of you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Mr. Lessard.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Always the last word.

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

I appreciate Mr. Komarnicki's good wishes. Of course, we wish you all the best as well.

In my view, the fall was quite a busy time for the committee. Indeed, we had a lot on our plate, as our colleague, Mr. Martin, was saying. There are bills relating to employment insurance as well as the issue of poverty.

With regard to poverty, the reason why I wanted to do the tour before the Holidays was so as to allow the drafters to begin their work after the Holiday season, in January.

We must not neglect an aspect that was brought up by Ms. Minna, even if the drafting work has begun. I believe that a whole portion of the report should be devoted to Aboriginal communities, in order to see how we will be tackling this situation head on, given that it is very specific.

When we were in Winnipeg, I believe, Mr. Fontaine, one of the band leaders, strongly suggested to us that we visit reserves. We have however not visited any reserves to date. I would therefore suggest that we go and visit one; we could undertake this visit upon our return. It would be a visit to the Lac Barrière reserve, in Parc de La Vérendrye. It is situated two and a half to three hours from here, at most. We could go there by bus and get a first-hand look at the situation in that community.

For some of us who have not had the opportunity to live this experience, I think it will be a revelation. Personally, I have often had the opportunity to go into reserves and, each time, I have been surprised to see to what extent the situation not only has not improved, but has deteriorated.

This is why I am coming back with this suggestion that we visit the Lac Barrière reserve upon our return, after the break. I believe it should be a priority, as should be seeing Richard Desjardins' film entitled The Invisible Nation. As a matter of fact, I have often invited you to view this film, and perhaps some of you have done so. Without having to go anywhere, you would have an overview of the situation of Aboriginals.

Those are my renewed suggestions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

Mr. Savage, we'll wrap it up with you.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

As some of you know, the Senate committee produced their report on poverty last week. It's a very good report with a number of very good recommendations. I don't know if everybody has seen it...but a 17-page executive summary for Christmas Eve. Maybe there's some way of distributing it to all of us so we are informed. I think we should invite the chair of that committee, Art Eggleton, and perhaps other members such as Hugh Segal, to come before the committee as early as possible in the new year. That's my suggestion.

I'd also like to reciprocate Mr. Komarnicki's wishes for Christmas.

The people who hold this place together are the staff, our clerk, our analysts, and our translators who work so hard for us. I'm sure you were going to do this anyway, but I would like to extend to all the staff a wonderful Christmas. We'll see you in 2010. May the excitement continue.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you.

I wish everyone a merry Christmas.

We'll get the links out to you for that report. Then you'll have access to it over Christmas.

Thanks again, everyone. Have a great Christmas.

The meeting is adjourned.