Evidence of meeting #2 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
We know that there is one vice-chair who is a member of the governing party and another who is a member of the opposition. Now, we are saying that there must also be a member from...
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
In that case, perhaps we should specify... If the governing party wants one of its members to be there when the chair of the meeting is already from the opposition, I would not be against amending the motion accordingly.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
Amending along the lines, Yvon, of saying that there should be one government-side member present too--is that what you're inferring? No? Okay.
Jean.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I just want to point out that this rarely happens, and that there is a requirement of adequate notice of meeting. Presumably, if we have invited witnesses to attend, all members would have sufficient notice so that either they or a substitute would make every effort to be here. We're spending a significant amount of time on something that rarely happens, and I just want to point that out for the committee's information.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
We have a motion on the floor, and a little discussion with respect to that, aside from Mr. Albrecht's making an amendment to say “including one member of the opposition and one member of the government”. If you're proposing that, we can--
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
I just want to acknowledge that I'm new to the committee and I don't have any reason to push that as an amendment. I'm just wondering if it's a consideration that we should mention.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
It's not an invalid point of view, and if you want to put it forward, we can quickly--
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Okay, I will do it just to test the committee and so we can move on.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
Are there any quick thoughts on that? We can say up or down, yea or nay, on that one, and then we'll move to the main motion.
Anita.
Liberal
Anita Neville Liberal Winnipeg South Centre, MB
Mr. Chairman, I don't think it's necessary. It's incumbent upon each of us to make sure we're represented at a committee meeting, and I don't think it needs to be prescribed.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
Okay. Let's quickly go with that amendment, which is to say--and it's that last part--“including one member of the opposition and one member of the government”.
(Amendment negatived)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
So we've rendered an opinion there.
If we go back to the main motion, we had the discussion actually put forward by Marc, but then I think in terms of the mover, Mr. Bruinooge, which is to say that in the absence of the chair one of the vice-chairs be authorized to hold.... As Jean rightly points out, this seldom happens.
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
Distribution of documents: that the clerk of the committee be authorized to distribute to the members of the committee only documents that are available in both official languages.
Conservative
Bloc
Yvon Lévesque Bloc Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC
Can a member distribute documents directly to the members of the committee, or must that be done by the clerk of the committee?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Maurice Vellacott
No, my understanding is that whatever is placed on the table here is through the clerk. I don't know if other committee members have a different understanding, but that's how documents get on your desk.
Nancy, you've chaired before. You'd understand it that way? Okay.
I guess this comes up, obviously, and those who have been serving here for a bit of time would know that sometimes we get groups on short notice, and they're making up their presentation on the airplane, that kind of thing. It may come in one of our official languages or even one of our aboriginal languages. Then we have that little bit of awkwardness, because you don't want to offend those people, but we need to then hold the line on that. The clerk certainly informs those people, as those witnesses are given notice that they can appear before the committee, their expenses are covered, and so on.
It is a bit difficult, and I do recall one time, when we had some people from, I think, Iqaluit or someplace, they brought documents that were not in both languages. This does occur, and you don't want to offend, but I think you probably need to draw the line.
Nancy.
Liberal
Nancy Karetak-Lindell Liberal Nunavut, NU
I was just going to add to that.
I think we gave opportunities for them to be put on a side table but not necessarily distributed by the clerk, and those members who wanted to get up and pick up something could. But we also at one time gave unanimous consent, I think, but that didn't happen very often because we strongly felt that the committee should distribute material only in two languages.
I know there are cases, as you say, where we don't give very much notice for witnesses to come, and they don't have time for translation because French translators aren't always available in some parts of the country. But we did it as it occurred, trying to be sensitive of both sides.
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
Further to what Nancy said, I'd like to mention the last committee's language regarding that: “...that no document from a witness be distributed without the Clerk's approval; but, at the discretion of the Chair, the question could be discussed by members of the Committee and, afterwards, the document could be distributed if it receives unanimous consent.”
Conservative
Conservative
Rod Bruinooge Conservative Winnipeg South, MB
I'm referring back to some information we got regarding last year's amendment to the routine--
Conservative
