Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 5th, 2008

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We will call our meeting to order. We are public, of course, for the first part of our meeting.

There are two items on the agenda: first, a couple of motions by Mr. Karygiannis and Olivia Chow; and second, we have our budget for travel.

The first motion is by Mr. Karygiannis:

That, pursuant to Standing Orders 110(1) and 111(1), and the House of Commons' order of reference of February 14, 2008, the Committee call to appear the recently appointed members of the Immigration and Refugee Board, Berto Volpentesta and Dominique Setton-Lemar.

That's your motion, Mr. Karygiannis. Do you wish to comment on it?

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

Mr. Chair, this is a common motion. People get appointed, and I would like them to appear in front of us to give us their credentials and to tell us what makes them special to be on the IRB.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you.

Is there any further discussion on Mr. Karygiannis's motion before we call it?

Mr. St-Cyr.

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I have a suggestion. I don't know whether this has to be the subject of an amendment or whether it's implicit, but I'd like to have the CVs of these persons before their testimony. I don't know them personally, and the CVs would tell us their main economic and political involvements.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You probably didn't get them yet, but the profiles have already been circulated to your offices. I'm sure you will get them very shortly, if you don't have them already. I know that some members have already received them.

Are there any further comments on this motion?

Mr. Telegdi.

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

Maybe at the same time, the parliamentary secretary can inform us or get for us how many vacancies we still have, and how many have been filled.

Give us the numbers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Do you have a comment on that, Mr. Komarnicki?

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

Mr. Chair, can we deal with the motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes, but this is part of it.

Mr. Komarnicki.

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

Yes, I would like to comment on that.

I'm not sure why Mr. Karygiannis necessarily wishes to have these people here. I guess he doesn't necessarily need to say why, and under the Standing Orders he's probably entitled to have them.

Having said that, we will certainly take the request made by Mr. Telegdi and see if we can get that information. After the motion is voted on, I would suggest that we perhaps also call the director general of operations at the IRB, who could possibly answer some questions on that directly. It's something we can talk about after the motion, I guess, because it does not directly affect the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes.

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

Do you want to amend the motion to include the director of the IRB on the list?

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

Yes, I'll amend the motion to add the director general of operations.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, so the motion is amended.

Mr. Telegdi, on the amendment or the motion?

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

Just on that, I would like to get Mr. Ben Dolan to come forward as well. Mr. Ben Dolan used to be a researcher with our committee for many years. I happen to know that all the critics and the chair of the committee recommended his appointment. It would be good to see him back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is that okay with you, Mr. Karygiannis?

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

I don't know anything about the individual, so I'm not sure I'd agree to that amendment.

[An hon. member]

Is he with the IRB?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Is it fair to say that we have had our discussion on this?

[An hon. member]

Call the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Are we ready for the question, the motion as amended?

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

Could you read the amended motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

It would read:

That, pursuant to Standing Orders 110(1) and 111(1), and the House of Commons' order of reference of February 14, 2008, the Committee call to appear the recently appointed members of the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), Berto Volpentesta and Dominique Setton-Lemar; the Director General, Operations, of the Immigration and Refugee Board; and Mr. Ben Dolan.

(Motion as amended agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The second motion is Ms. Chow's. She's not here, so we will just postpone it and move in camera for the travel budget.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Andrew Chaplin]

Could we suspend the committee until the paperwork gets here? It had to be approved by my....