Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 8th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, and we would have to get consent from the CBSA for—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Okay. I've asked for unanimous consent for the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is there unanimous consent? No.

Okay, let's move.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Can I challenge the chair on that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

No, you can't.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'll give it in writing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, let's go to the operational budget request.

This will cover the extra meetings we're going to have in the not-too-distant future, the ones the steering committee directed us to have.

The budget to cover the cost of witnesses is $63,200.

Could I have a mover for that?

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Which one is that, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

This is the operational budget for the witnesses to come to these extra meetings.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

I move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay.

[Bill Siksay, NDP, Burnaby—Douglas, BC]

Mr. Chair, I'll move if it's $65,200, not $63,200.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I've got to get my glasses done up here. Okay, it's $65,200.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay. That concludes our—

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

No. Don't we have a motion?

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I can read it into the record.

In view of what we've witnessed today, and some witnesses having said that they clearly wanted to have an international body to overlook—be it the UNHCR or something else—I'm asking for unanimous consent—I'll read it into the record:

In View of STCA clearly not working and countries that are signatories to Refugee Protection under UNHCR having different measures and ways to determine Refugee Claimant determination be it in the Americas, Europe or other parts of the world, this Committee asks that the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration takes these concerns to the United Nations and asks for protocols to be set where guidelines and protocols be set for countries signatory to the UNHCR Refugee Protection to follow in a manner which is similar across the board.

Further the Minister to ask UNHCR for an ombudsman to monitor cases and provide guidance to countries and share the best practices with all countries involved.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, Mr. Karygiannis has taken the opportunity to read that into the record.

That completes our business.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'm asking for unanimous consent, if I can do it today. If not—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

No.

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

I have a couple of points.

Mr. Telegdi, I take it that we agree on having the minister and department officials appear on the February 19.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

We have to open it up, Mr. Chair, because the minister and the department officials will not be available to come until February 19. So I think what we should do is move everything—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Instead of?

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Instead of February 12?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Instead of February 12. For the extra meetings?

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Yes, for the meetings.

What I'm proposing we do is take February 12 to get down to Kingston. Then we start the meetings on February 19 and 26 and follow through.

Also, instead of having two meetings for witnesses—given their number, and we might even have some additions—we might extend the hearings. Right now, we're scheduled for three meetings; this would extend it to four.

We should be open to the possibility that since there's great interest around this issue, and we want to have adequate time with the witnesses, we would go from 11 o'clock until 1:30, until the hearings—