Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 4th, 2016

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I will be very frank. I'm very proud to be here because I represent my riding's aboriginal communities—Mi'kmaq communities that have suffered from various decisions over the past few years. We could discuss this for hours, but I think we are here to do a job, to support our aboriginal communities that need help on and off reserve.

That is the last comment I wanted to make. I think that the PROC suggestion is solid, and it is very clear. I propose that this motion be adopted as quickly as possible, so that we can move on to the real interests of our constituents and our aboriginal communities.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you, for that.

The amendment on the floor is seven minutes on the top half and five on the bottom half, with three in the final row for the NDP.

Can we see if there's support for Charlie's amendment?

(Amendment agreed to)

Now we have to vote on the amended motion. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the amended motion?

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Before we move to adjournment, which we'll do in a couple of minutes, I'd like to put in a placeholder and create an agenda item for our next meeting, which will be committee business. I invite committee members to think, over the recess that we're facing now, about what kind of work you'd like to work on and address during this committee and what information you might like to have presented to this committee. We'll speak in the round when we get back together after the recess, and that will determine our next moves.

Before I call for the motion of adjournment, Don...?

[Don Rusnak, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

It was suggested to me that because we're doing work that affects indigenous communities across the country so greatly—and as Charlie so eloquently said they have suffered, and Rémi also said, under years of bad decisions from our federal government—we should be more inclusive of first nations and indigenous communities, and have a motion that all of our meetings.... I don't know if all of the meetings are webcast or broadcast, but because of the people that we represent all of our meetings should be webcast or televised.

Charlie has a lot of remote communities. I have some remote communities, although they all have road access. I'm sure that Rémi has remote communities. We're doing important work here for these communities, and I think they should see what's happening here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thanks, Don. That's a very reasonable suggestion. I'm just speaking with the clerk and I'm told that for all meetings, by a matter of course, the audio is broadcast. There are only three rooms that have video, so what I'm hearing is that we can make every effort to get those rooms, but we can't guarantee they'll all be video broadcast. However, they will be audio broadcast on the website.

Let's have some conversation. Gary.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

It's another point altogether. Do we have to appoint the subcommittee on agenda and procedure today?

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

We do, and it was one of the earlier motions.

Actually, we need to name the two members. Thank you for raising that. Let's come back to that. I guess we were a bit hasty in talking about the motion to adjourn, but let's finish up with Don's point.

If you'd like to phrase it as a motion, let's do it.

[Don Rusnak, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Then it will give you the ability to go to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Yes, very good. Let's say the motion that Don is moving is to ensure the audio of all committee meetings is broadcast on the web, and that every effort will be made to broadcast the video as well.

Does that sound right? Is there discussion on that?

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I'm glad we have a motion. I think what we might want to do is sit down, maybe when we do the subcommittee meeting, and talk about possibilities for engagement.

We have to think outside the box a bit, because we're going to deal with the architecture of the rooms. There are certain rooms that have video feeds and certain rooms that don't. How do we make it so that more of the communities can feel like they know what's going on? We're going to be talking about stuff they should be feeling a part of.

Whether we do some live tweets of the events, or just start to try to work with overall budgets in a way that we actually get into some of the communities to hold some of these hearings, it would be really powerful to be in some of the communities and bring these issues to them.

It's going to be complicated. It's not something that I would suggest we could put into a formal motion, because we're going to have to figure it out on a case-by-case basis. If we sit down and try to put our heads together to try to make this committee the open committee, the committee that represents and responds to the issues we're hearing about, I think we'll all be a lot more credible in the work we're doing.

I agree with the motion. I totally support it, but I think we do need a conversation of how to go about this more informal conversation that we can then bring back to the larger membership of the committee to say, “These are some suggestions.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Okay, I think the motion sets a nice baseline that I'm sure we can approve today. Then what you're talking about, broader outreach and engagement, is a good topic for when we come back after the break.

Is it on Don's motion?

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

It's a proposal about subcommittee membership.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Is the committee in favour of adopting Don's motion on broadcasting?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Then Gary brought up the committee composition.

Did you have any more to say, or will we go to Rémi on that point?

Arnold, is your point on committee composition?

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

)

Then I beg your pardon, Rémi, Arnold has a view, so let's hear from Arnold.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Chairman.

We may want to meet as a committee of the whole for our first meeting to discuss these things before we actually put this into the subcommittee. That would be my recommendation, that we meet as a committee of the whole next time to discuss what will be allowed to be discussed at our meetings, and then at that meeting put the smaller committee together, after we've discussed some of the topics that we will be covering.

That's my suggestion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Arnold is suggesting that we not name names today. That's good.

Let's go to Rémi.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

I'm fine about discussing the subjects that we'd be discussing during the committee, but I'd be proposing to name the members and get rid of that and it would be solved.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Without getting into content, just name the names.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

Correct.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

That's certainly an efficient thing to do while we're all together.

[Rémi Massé, Liberal, Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC]

I'm proposing two members, and they would be Don Rusnak and Gary—I don't want to pronounce his last name because I won't be able to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Okay, we have a motion on the floor and there's some discussion.

Michael.

[Michael McLeod, Liberal, Northwest Territories, NT]

I have a question, and it's not specific to this. I'm trying to make a comment on being more inclusive and trying to involve the general public. I'm just wondering what the rules are around being more inclusive, bringing aboriginal people to the table in subcommittees or in this committee, or bringing in people with expertise who could talk to us or advise us about aboriginal issues.

I don't have a strategy and I don't have anybody in mind, but how rigidly is the door closed on this? Can we have somebody sitting with us? Can we have people on our committee who don't necessarily sit on this committee? My understanding is that we have some flexibility there and we could bring in other people.

[The Chair, Liberal, Andy Fillmore]

Thank you.

As far as the subcommittee, it's really just a planning committee. What you're raising, I think, wouldn't impact the planning committee or the subcommittee, so let's separate that. The question is for the broader committee. While I think we have leeway to do what we like...and I'm told that there have been in the past, or perhaps it's our usual practice, that there be—

[A voice]

It's not usual.