Evidence of meeting #30 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Robert Henderson  Executive Director, BioTalent Canada
Grant Trump  President and Chief Executive Officer, Environmental Careers Organization of Canada
Alain Beaudoin  Director General, Information and Communications Technologies Branch, Department of Industry
Shane Williamson  Director General, Program Coordination Branch, Science and Innovation Sector, Department of Industry

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB

So we'll be checking into a hotel for five or six hours.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

Well, you would be arriving in Calgary at 10:37. There is a hotel at the airport, so with all said and done, you'd be in bed by 11:30 and up and ready to go at 7:30.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Devinder Shory Conservative Calgary Northeast, AB

I'll go home.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

Well, you could.

This was the only flight that concerned me when I saw it. It's after midnight, at 12:30, and that might be pushing it. I think the other nights are late, but they're not pushing it past midnight.

Okay. I take it that the consensus is to overnight in Calgary.

5:25 p.m.

NDP

Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC

I don't expect a full schedule from the clerk for now until June, but could we get the next couple of weeks of witnesses, just so we know what's in front of us? It helps us to prepare a little better. I know sometimes that not all the witnesses are confirmed, and I understand the clerk and the analysts are doing incredible jobs trying to get this on. But for whatever we've got scheduled, could we know what it is?

The other thing is that I wonder if we have any confirmation on the estimates yet.

5:25 p.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

[Inaudible--Editor]...the potential for what could happen with either committee of the whole or other items. I have asked and I have not received a notice yet. But I have asked, so it has definitely been flagged. We were more waiting on your new leadership and what was going on.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC

Well you guys control the supply days, though, and we have to schedule the—

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

I was waiting for confirmation of what's going to end up happening with respect to all the—

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC

With committee of the whole. Okay.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

Just so you know, Evelyn has been ill for the last couple of weeks or so, and other clerks have been filling in. That's been a little problematic.

But having said that, if you're able to provide us with a couple of weeks, that would be good.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC

That would be great.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

I should also mention that, with respect to the Barrie trip whenever that takes place, it's about an hour and a half from Toronto, which would mean a bus from Toronto.

I would take it we'd probably want to fly into Toronto, as opposed to going by some other means of conveyance. You can go by train, but that becomes a long day. I would think we would fly to Toronto and then get to the next point.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

I don't know if Manon knows the program Welcome Back, Kotter.

The show was called Welcome Back, Kotter. On the show, one of the characters, Horshack, made funny noises.

Nonetheless, my question for the chair, who would know Welcome Back, Kotter, is can we get a listing of where we're going to be and on what days? Do we have an idea yet of what the travel days would be and where we would be on which days?

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

It would be the days we gave the clerk, so I'm sure we can get those days.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Kellie Leitch Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON

Do you know when we would be getting that program from you, the clerk, or....

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Ed Komarnicki

I would say that on Wednesday we're going to put the budget before this committee for approval and we should have those dates and times circulated to everybody.

Now in fairness to the clerks, they're trying to get a budget for the flights and the dates we've suggested not knowing exactly what we're going to be doing there. It's a bit problematic. They're trying to give us a start and an end time for flying.

I would ask committee members, particularly those who are involved with an area we're going to be visiting, especially in the east, to propose the people who should attend at the round table and where the site visit might be so that the logistics people can start putting that together. They're putting a budget together, particularly for the eastern trip, without having all of the details and information because we need to have that approved fairly quickly, so anything you can do to supply that information would be great.

For now we will have the dates, and obviously the flight times, for both east and west. I think we'll leave Barrie open-ended. We will select the date when it's convenient.

Are there any other thoughts or comments? If not, I'll pass this on to the clerk, who will pass it on to a logistics officer. We hope by Wednesday to have a budget with some dates, times, and things we can look at in a concrete fashion.

All right. Thank you.