Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on March 12th, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Members, before we wrap up here, we have one administrative matter to deal with.

I'd first like to thank the witnesses for coming. The members will be interested to know that Mr. Dempsey and Mr. Jacques will be with us—but Mr. Crowfoot, I don't believe so—for our clause-by-clause consideration of these amendments at our next meeting.

So thank you for coming today. It's a good segue into our next meeting.

On the administrative matters, members, we've been asked to see if we would be interested in joining a delegation from Australia. The president of the senate of Australia is coming on a visit on the 21st and 22nd of April, at the invitation of Speaker Kinsella. The delegation includes both senators and members of the Australian parliament, and they are interested in meeting with our committee to hear our thoughts and to discuss the issues, especially relating to the health of aboriginal people and the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples' health, and also on issues of aboriginal governance.

So we have some options there. The 21st is a Tuesday. We could have the delegation here as part of our regular meeting on that Tuesday morning, if the timing works out. Or we could hold a special committee meeting and reception for them. I'm really looking for some expression of interest on that. Or, if you'd like, I can just go ahead and make up what I think would work well for all committee members and have a social time and a time to exchange some views on those two issues.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Just for clarification, Mr. Chairman, are you suggesting we use that morning's committee?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

That's an option; or, if it's your wish, we could set aside a special time for that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'd be amenable, Mr. Chairman—though I haven't spoken with others about this—to use that particular meeting for this. These occasions are valuable, and I certainly would have no objection personally to doing that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

Is there consensus on that?

So it wouldn't be the normal course of a meeting vis-à-vis questioning witnesses. We would hope to have more of an exchange of views between members and the delegation at that meeting, if that's....

That's agreeable? Okay. We'll try to set that up.

Perhaps immediately after the 11 o'clock hour, if you could set aside some additional time, we'll perhaps have some food and join with the delegation for a brief reception as well.

If that's agreeable, then we'll proceed on that basis.

That's all I have by way of administrative matters. Our next meeting will be the Tuesday following the constituent week, the 24th of March, when we'll proceed with clause-by-clause consideration of the bill.

Merci beaucoup and bonne journée.

This meeting is adjourned.