Evidence of meeting #5 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cerb.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Carla Qualtrough Liberal Delta, BC
On that last particular issue, I just want to highlight that we hear you. We're looking at building in flexibility for students who are Canadians citizens or permanent residents and who are abroad to still have access to it this summer.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Thank you very much, Minister.
To all of my colleagues, thank you for being so respectful of the clock. We were able to get in two full rounds, which was our goal.
Minister, we very much thank you and your officials for making yourselves available as soon as this process got up and running. We very much appreciate that.
Colleagues, we are about to adjourn. We do not yet have confirmation of when we will be meeting again, because three more committees have been added to the roster, which is quite a drain on the parliamentary resources. The last tentative schedule I saw had us meeting on Wednesday, but please don't take that as gospel.
I would ask each of you to think about the future conduct of business, to make sure that you communicate amongst yourselves, because in advance of any meeting, I do propose an informal telephone conference with the vice-chairs, representatives from the NDP and the Bloc, to plan our next course of business. If you could give that some thought, then hopefully we could be as efficient in our next meetings as we were in this one.
So unless there is anything further....
I see Ms. Kusie's hand up.
Ms. Kusie, I recognize you.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I just wanted to indicate that unanimous consent was not received for Mr. Manley to be subbed in. We certainly recognize him as an individual from a party that does not have official status within the House. If he is going to be given the consideration to be put on standby, then we would also ask for other independent members of Parliament to be given that consideration as well.
Certainly, while I recognize that these virtual meetings are not conventional, we should follow, as closely as possible, the conventions that we follow when we meet in person. This, of course, would include unanimous consent on the subbing in.
Thank you.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
On this point, from the NDP's perspective, if an independent member—from the Green Party, in this instance—is able to share time with another committee member, we don't have a problem with that. I'll just leave it at that,
Mr. Chair, I do have a separate point, though, if I may. During the committee meeting, I did ask officials, when they were before us, to provide MPs with contact information in order to directly follow up with them on individual cases. They said that's something they would do. I wonder if you can undertake to get that information from the officials and share it with all of the committee members.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
To my understanding, unanimous consent is not required for MPs to give up their time. I think it's up to each individual MP as to whether they choose to voluntarily give up a portion of their time. That's what I understood happened today.
Could someone maybe just clarify that? I don't know if that's a question for the clerk.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Does the clerk care to respond to that?
After that, we'll go to Mr. Albas and Mr. Vaughan.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Marie-France Lafleur
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Normally, yes, the time belongs to the member. The member can share his or her time with another member if he or she wishes to do so, yes.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
My point, Mr. Chair, would be that a number of independents may want to come to different committees. I think it's just proper to ask for unanimous consent. If someone is not subbed in, I have no issue.... Raquel Dancho subbed in today, and we followed the proper process. At every meeting I've been at, the chair usually asks at the beginning if there is unanimous consent to have a member who is not an official member of the committee speak. To me, that's just a good thing for us to ensure. Quite honestly, if it happens that several different independent members want to come in, then we have to start drawing the line on these things.
I would just hope that you would canvass people and seek that consent to have someone who is not subbed in, who may be an associate member just by virtue of being a member of Parliament, participate if the committee wills it.
Liberal
Adam Vaughan Liberal Spadina—Fort York, ON
On the point of getting direct numbers to MPs to troubleshoot constituency issues, I hope this doesn't mean we're going to be distributing the numbers for deputy ministers and heads of Crown corporations. There are some issues there that we have to be respectful of the Privy Council and governmental rules around, but I do support, of course, getting that mechanism in place.
I would also suggest, though, that for some of these things, such as for the CMHC, just as I can't call up the CBC and ask what story they're running tonight, I can't call up the CMHC, even as a parliamentary secretary, and ask, “Where is grant A or grant B?” They're a Crown corporation and there are legal requirements as to how we approach Crown corporations.
I totally respect the concern that has been raised about the critic calls and the way in which parliamentary secretaries respond. I totally understand that and totally support getting good information back and forth as quickly as possible. That's our job as parliamentary secretaries. However, if you could forward some of those calls to the deputy ministers or Crown corporations through the parliamentary secretary, we can then push that through the cabinet process to get you as quick and direct a response as possible. Even as Liberal members of Parliament, we have rules that we have to live by, and we need to respect those rules, especially at times such as this.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
I just want to reiterate my understanding that the rules stipulate that independents are welcome to join meetings and any of the members can share their time. Certainly the Conservative Party is welcome to share their time with any other members who join.
I also want to point out that other committees have adopted this practice. The Green Party has sat in; Elizabeth May has been at every PROC meeting so far since that committee reconvened, and members have chosen to share their time. I think all of us at this time want every member of Parliament to have an equal voice. That is part of parliamentary privilege.
Thank you.
NDP
Jenny Kwan NDP Vancouver East, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Again, on this point as well, in the previous Parliament we've had situations where I shared my time with a Bloc member, for example, who was not an official member of the committee. Therefore, if committee members wish to share time with another member, I do believe it will be up to us to facilitate that. I do think it's important to ensure that different people have the opportunity to speak if there are members willing to share time with them.
That said, on the question around information, we all heard on the committee when I asked the question of the officials to provide the contact information. Of course, it would be up to the official's office what contact number they would provide to MPs' offices. The point is this: The issues we are raising are not necessarily policy decisions that should go to a parliamentary secretary or a minister, and so on, but rather the logistics of the application of the program and the problems we experience as MPs with our constituents. Our constituents have a multitude of issues, and in trying to navigate the situation, we often don't have that information and they are in a grey area in trying to get to a resolution.
As a case in point, when I raised the example of my constituents having to quit their jobs because of various situations, the response was, “Well, there's an appeal process.” Be that as it may, as it stands right now, those individuals are not getting the support they need, so having an official look into that situation would help the constituents greatly.
That is my point. I hope we can endeavour to get that information, not just for this committee but also for all 338 members of Parliament.
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you, Chair.
I have two points to raise.
First of all, I want to recognize that we are in the middle of COVID-19, which is a world pandemic and something that nobody in our generation has experienced. Given the seriousness of this event, I have to say, as I think I've heard from other colleagues, that I've been receiving a reasonable amount of information. I just want to get on the record that I appreciate the fact that the government has done a good job on a daily basis in providing information about all these new programs that have been introduced in the last few weeks.
Secondly, I want to congratulate all members of the committee. We've actually held our first virtual Zoom meeting as a committee. I want to give a lot of thanks and recognize all of the work that the clerks, the staff and the chair have done to make this a very smooth operation today, with very few technical glitches and—
Liberal
Liberal
Han Dong Liberal Don Valley North, ON
Thank you very much to the clerk and staff for facilitating this. Thank you.