Human Resources Committee on March 16th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Minister, we appreciate your making yourself available during the constituency week. It wasn't something that was foreseen, but it was necessary, given the matter referred to us by the House that we dealt with last week.

Thanks to you and your team for being with us and for handling the questions on supplementary and main estimates. We'll see you again soon in connection with the EI study.

[Carla Qualtrough, Liberal, Delta, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I will endeavour to get you the answers to those questions, the information that we committed to providing, as soon as possible.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thanks to your team.

Colleagues, I'd like you, please, to stick around. We actually have yet to vote on the estimates.

To the officials, you're welcome to stay, but you're free to leave. Thank you, once again, for being with us. We'll see you again soon, no doubt.

Before we wrap, folks, there are a couple of things we need to do. First of all, with respect to the supplementary estimates, the parliamentary schedule indicates that we're going to have the last three allotted days the week we come back. The deadline for reporting the supplementary estimates, based on the schedule at present, is therefore Monday, which presents a bit of a problem for us because we have Minister Schulte coming before us on the supplementary estimates on Tuesday.

This isn't insurmountable, but what I need from the committee is an agreement that we will report the supplementary estimates on Monday and leave the invitation for Minister Schulte outstanding so that she can come in and speak to the supplementary estimates as a subject matter study even though they have already been reported.

We will not report the main estimates, because we don't have to, until May 31. Even though we've heard from two ministers on the main estimates, we may still want to hear from Minister Tassi and we'll hear from Minister Schulte on the main estimates.

If the committee agrees with this approach, I would suggest that we proceed to vote now on the supplementary estimates, that we report them on Monday, that we hear from Minister Schulte as a subject matter study on Tuesday, and that we report the main estimates before the deadline of May 31.

Is there any need for clarification, any discussion or any concern with that suggested approach? Excellent.

That being the case—

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

Mr. Chair, I have had my hand up for a few minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Oh, my bad. Go ahead, Ms. Dancho. You have the floor.

[Raquel Dancho, Conservative, Kildonan—St. Paul, MB]

I have a couple of things. The Conservatives are fine to report the supplementary estimates to the House. That's fine on our end. I can't speak for the other opposition parties.

I also wanted to thank you, Chair, for arranging this during a break week. I know there wasn't agreement before from all parties to do that. I really appreciate your making the effort to make sure it happened this week to accommodate the very tight schedules of ministers and the House. I just wanted to say thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I appreciate that very much. [Technical difficulty—Editor] full co-operation. Thanks to everyone, and most certainly to the ministers who helped to ensure that this happened as well.

Thank you, Ms. Dancho.

I believe we have consensus to proceed as I had suggested. That being the case, we will now move to decisions on supplementary estimates (C).

CANADA MORTGAGE AND HOUSING CORPORATION

Vote 1c—Reimbursement under the provisions of the National Housing Act and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Act..........$19,118,985

(Vote 1c agreed to on division)

DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Vote 1c—Operating expenditures..........$29,331,656

Vote 5c—Grants and contributions..........$8,000,000

Vote 10c—Debt write-off—Government Annuities Account..........$1

Vote 15c—Debt write-off—Canada Student Loans..........$188,099,201

(Votes 1c, 5c, 10c and 15c agreed to on division)

Shall I report the votes on supplementary estimates (C) 2020-21 to the House?

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

I'd like a recorded vote on that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Madam Clerk, we have a recorded vote on whether I am to report the votes on the supplementary estimates to the House.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

Go ahead, Mr. Vis.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, we've had so much great co-operation on this committee that I would just encourage you, when you report these estimates, to say how well all political parties on the HUMA committee are working well together. The Liberal rhetoric just doesn't stand up to the great co-operation we have on this standing committee.

Thank you, sir; great job today.

[Han Dong, Liberal, Don Valley North, ON]

Brad, should we all take a screen shot and attach it to the report?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[An hon. member]

I love the positivity.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

All right. We need people to get on with their day.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adjourn the meeting?

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Don't tempt me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adjourn the meeting?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We are adjourned. Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you, Mr. Vis.