Human Resources Committee on Jan. 31st, 2022

[The Clerk]

Mr. Morrissey, Ms. Zarrillo has her hand raised.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Okay.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

I wonder if I could request a break. If we could get some information on how people will be recognized in the room versus online, and how we will coordinate that for the rest of this meeting, that would be appreciated.

I'd like to take a break for two minutes just to get that information.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Okay.

I will suspend for a few minutes while I consult with the clerk.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, committee members.

We are now in the second hour and we are in public. We're resuming committee business in public.

I will ask the clerk to advise me on who has their hand up.

[The Clerk]

Mrs. Kusie has her hand raised, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Mrs. Kusie, go ahead.

[Stephanie Kusie, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

I just want to applaud the committee for making the decision to go in public to have this discussion. I just think it's so very important that our constituents and all Canadians see that we have the issues facing this nation first-hand at mind and that we are here ready to take those interests to heart and to plan our studies.

Mr. Chair, certainly the Conservatives submitted many good motions, as did many others of this team. I see so many fantastic ideas here. I'm very excited about all of them, frankly. It will be very difficult for this group to prioritize how we will study and what we will do, but I think a good tone to start off our studies and to start off the conversations we're going to have would be Madame Chabot's motion.

Ms. Chabot's motion is as follows:

That the committee invite the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities, the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Seniors to appear for one hour each before the committee to explain their mandate lettres.

I think it will be an excellent opportunity to hear about the priorities of the ministers. We will also have an opportunity to talk to the ministers about their priorities for this session, that is, between now and the spring—we will obviously be here until the end of June. That would be a good start for the committee. After that, we can look at all the other motions.

As I said, there are a number of good motions on the table, but I think it would be good to start off with a motion on the presence of ministers at the committee.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Is there any discussion on the motion?

[Michael Coteau, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Chair, can I hear the motion again? Was there a motion actually put on the floor?

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Mr. Chair, I had raised my hand.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

We were dealing with Mrs. Kusie's motion.

Mrs. Kusie, please repeat your motion.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Clerk]

There's a point of order, Mr. Chair, from Ms. Martinez Ferrada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Go ahead on a point of order.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Mr. Chair, given that today's meeting is in a hybrid format—

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I raised my hand first, Mr. Chair.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

Ms. Chabot, I raised the point of order in an effort to help you.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

All right; I'm sorry.

Sometimes there are delays in interpretation.

[Soraya Martinez Ferrada, Liberal, Hochelaga, QC]

That is part of my point of order, Ms. Chabot.

Mr. Chair, it would be really interesting to check with the clerk on how to help the committee members function properly even though we're in a hybrid format. Since the chair is attending the meeting virtually, he doesn't see what's going on in the room, and vice versa. Perhaps the clerk could help the chair keep track of the speaking order of members. Since the clerk is in the room, she could help the chair, so that there is better cohesion in terms of the speaking order of members.

I would like to raise another point. I think I am the only French speaker in the room. It is extremely difficult for me to hear the interpretation, because I hear the English-speaking members in the room. If all my colleagues used earpieces and the sound in the room was turned down, it would help me hear the interpretation well.

For the benefit of my colleagues who are attending the meeting virtually as well as my own, it would be helpful if the clerk could assist the chair in terms of the speaking order of members, which would help facilitate the discussions. We are here to consider and discuss the motions at hand.

[Alex Ruff, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

I wanted to reiterate the same issue that the previous member just indicated. We're getting the translation of both, so if we could fix that, it would make it a lot easier to understand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I agree. Thanks for raising that.

Are we getting that clarified, Madam Clerk?

[The Clerk]

I will speak to the services right now about that matter.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Let's suspend for two minutes while we're clarifying the issue that was identified.