Evidence of meeting #28 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was decision.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Mr. Chair, of course I have nothing against meetings, but we need to make a decision quickly. You talked about a three-hour meeting on Tuesday October 6. Is that confirmed? I already had something else on my agenda at 1:15 p.m.
However, if you tell me for sure that the meeting will last three hours, then I will make the necessary changes. I do feel that it is a priority to hear from these people. I agree with Mauril: it only makes sense to hear from each of them for one hour.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Okay.
To respond to Monsieur Lemay, it's entirely possible that we could do that. If the committee so agrees today, that's the way we'll do it. They are all confirmed for that time, for the Tuesday.
Can I just ask, then, is it agreeable that we go to two o'clock? Okay.
Mr. Duncan.
October 1st, 2009 / 11:15 a.m.
Conservative
John Duncan Conservative Vancouver Island North, BC
It's conceivable that we will not have a meeting on Tuesday, October 6, is it not?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
You raise the point in respect to the clerk's schedule, because half of the Tuesday and Thursday committees will be having their elections. In fact, we had the clerk here from the agriculture committee, and our clerk will be helping the election of the chair of the agriculture committee on Tuesday, but it is at a different time. So there is no conflict with Tuesday's meeting.
Conservative
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I have a conflict at one o'clock. I would need to see if somebody else could chair the meeting for me. I have a meeting that I chair at one o'clock.
Is everybody else in agreement with going from one o'clock to two o'clock?
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Okay. Let me see what I can do.
I did have another point, though.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Could we have a bigger room? If these national leaders are coming, there will be other people who are interested in sitting in to witness, so we need a bigger room. I hear Mr. Lemay saying it will be televised, and I think that's a great idea.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
I think that would be appropriate. We'll do our best to get a larger room and have the meeting televised.
Agreed? Okay. We'll go ahead with that, then.
To summarize, I didn't see any other points being raised in terms of Mr. Bagnell's motion that we adopt the subcommittee report as given and reported here today. That would essentially leave us with today's business, which would be the briefing on the Indian status and the McIvor ruling. It will have us Tuesday, October 6, with the presentations from the three newly elected leaders running from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., televised. That would have us coming back on the Thursday of next week. We'll have representatives from the Department of Justice and the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs on the issue of the honour to crown. That's Thursday, October 8.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Yes, October 8.
When we come back on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, October 20, it will be the issue of the action plan on child and family services, and we will again have representatives from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. I believe the briefing materials on that particular topic may even have been circulated already. That meeting will be on Tuesday, October 20.
Commencing on Thursday, October 22, we will proceed with the study on northern economic development. I'd also like to point out that on that topic you will have circulated to you a document that proposes some fairly broad or sweeping categories for potential witnesses; we'll be seeking your advice and suggestions about specific witnesses.
We will also schedule time for committee business to consider the travel component of this study. It will involve one trip, of four days probably, to do the Whitehorse and Yellowknife component of the trip, and a second trip to Iqaluit. That trip will likely be in November. You all realize this will have to go to the Liaison Committee. Before that happens, we're going to consider it ourselves with an expense proposal as well.
Mr. Bagnell and Monsieur Lemay.
Mr. Bagnell.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
That's good.
I have two points. One is that I assume the topics we're going to look at with the witnesses are formed by the discussions we had previously with them. That's why we had them.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Secondly, on the trip you just mentioned, I would suggest that the Whitehorse-Yellowknife portion also include Inuvik. There is a flight from Whitehorse to Inuvik, because there's a lot of oil and gas there. The Inuit development corporations, the Gwich'in development corporations, are all in Inuvik. And then there's a flight from Inuvik to Yellowknife. So it's technically not hard to do that at a fairly reasonable price.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Those are considerations we'll then look at. The clerk's office has in fact crunched some numbers and we'll be able to look at them. We'll schedule a meeting with one of the briefings coming up in the next few days. In the next few meetings, we'll put some time aside for committee business to look specifically at that question.
Monsieur Lemay.
Liberal
Larry Bagnell Liberal Yukon, YT
Because we're dealing with northern economic development, I think it would be much appreciated by northerners if we used northern airlines. All of those places, once you get to Vancouver or Calgary or Edmonton, can be reached by northern airlines, and also by Air Canada and WestJet. But I think northerners would appreciate our using the northern airlines because we're then helping northern economic development—and they are no more expensive.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bruce Stanton
Okay. I was going to say that we are under some constraint. There has been a protocol not to exceed the $100,000 mark. I know the whips have been fairly insistent on that, so we're going to do our best to fit within that cost framework.
Monsieur Lemay.
Bloc
