Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 9th, 2017

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you to the presenters. I appreciate how early it is in B.C. Have a great day.

Carol, thank you for calling in. I appreciate your words of wisdom.

[Carol Hopkins]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

All right. We dealt with the issue of looking for unanimous support to accept the coroner's report from Quebec, and that was defeated at the last meeting. We would be open to looking at a motion, for instance, that could say that as part of this study on suicide among indigenous communities, the Quebec coroner's report be filed as an exhibit with the clerk of the committee and be posted on the committee's web page.

This report, which members had indicated they hadn't had time to really investigate, would actually be part of our committee, and would be part of the record and be available. Do I have a mover of that motion?

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

Do we need a motion? Can we not just enter...?

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

There are several different technical ways of including the report. One is, as I suggested, an appendix. Another could be basically a link to the report. Another is the full 80 pages of the transcript in the minutes. There are several different options.

We believe that maybe the most practical one is to have it as an appendix.

Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I believe, given you did defeat it in the last session we had, that it probably does need a motion to move it back into the agenda. Otherwise, we would be doing something that was contrary to the will of the committee as expressed in the last meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Ms. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

I will move the motion for discussion.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Thank you. It's open to discussion. As the clerk has pointed out, we really did not discuss the content of the report. What we voted on was unanimous approval to discuss the report.

Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Perhaps in the last meeting I made some presumptions. Because we have been tasked with the issue of studying suicide and indigenous youth for many months, and given this coroner's report was very compelling and very important, I believe, for the study, I made some assumptions that the opposition were aware of this study and had also had a look at it. It turns out that was in error.

I hope that was the reason they did not agree to move forward last time and that they will reconsider now that they're more familiar with this particular document.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Mr. Massé.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

In the context of the study we are conducing in committee, we of course realize that communication in all senses is important. That is why we voted against the motion.

The report was submitted in December. It is very detailed and we did not have the opportunity to read it because of the time we had to spend on the work as a whole. Since then, we have taken a step back and we are ready to introduce a new motion so that this report can be included among the documents that the committee has examined.

[The Chair, Liberal, MaryAnn Mihychuk]

Very good. We will take the vote.

(Motion agreed to)

The report will be an appendix on our website.

Thank you very much for coming. It was a very full and productive meeting.

This meeting is adjourned.