Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Feb. 18th, 2020

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

It's absolutely not personal—just for the record—and it's not tactical. It's in respect of the way that the committees have been operating. My understanding is that between the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, convention would see that the third party would have the vice-chair. That would be the convention, as I understand it.

In this particular case, I think PROC is seized with determining whether there should be three vice-chairs. In respect of that decision, I think it would be appropriate for us to wait. All we're saying is that we defer the decision, that we not vote on it right now but defer it until that matter has been determined by PROC.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Mr. Powlowski, did you have your hand up?

[Marcus Powlowski, Liberal, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

I was going to ask whether the Bloc is seeking to have a vice-chair or not.

[Sylvie Bérubé, Bloc, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

We want to wait for the result.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I'm in the hands of the committee.

My suggestion is that, in view of the position that it's not a personal matter—it's a process matter—and that it could well conclude with two second vice-chairs from the Bloc and the NDP, for the purposes of following the PROC processes, we simply defer the decision on second vice-chair until the subsequent meeting to hear the comments from PROC.

Could I have a motion on deferral?

[Gary Vidal, Conservative, Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK]

We voted on it already.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

You have a motion on the floor to defer.

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

I believe we passed it, if I'm not mistaken.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I missed that because a discussion ensued. The matter will be deferred until the next meeting.

Next, I'm going to go to Ms. Zann.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to introduce routine motions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Go ahead, please.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

Regarding the analysts, I move:

That the committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the chair, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist in its work.

(Motion agreed to)

I move:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of five (5) members: the chair and one member from each party; and that the subcommittee work in the spirit of collaboration.

Regarding reduced quorum, I also move:

That the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four (4) members are present, including one member of the opposition and one member of the government, but when travelling outside the parliamentary precinct, that the meeting begin after fifteen (15) minutes, regardless of members present.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Ms. Zann, we'll take the previous motion on the subcommittee first.

(Motion agreed to)

Now we'll vote on the second motion that was just read.

(Motion agreed to)

Carry on, please.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

On questioning of witnesses, I move:

That witnesses be given ten (10) minutes for their opening statement; that, at the discretion of the Chair, during the questioning of witnesses, there be allocated six (6) minutes for the first questioner of each party as follows: Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Bloc Québécois, New Democratic Party. For the second and subsequent rounds, the order and time for questioning be as follows: Conservative Party, five (5) minutes; Liberal Party, five (5) minutes; Conservative Party, five (5) minutes; Liberal Party, five (5) minutes; Bloc Québécois, two and a half (2.5) minutes; New Democratic Party, two and a half (2.5) minutes.

(Motion agreed to)

For document distribution, I move:

That the clerk of the committee be authorized to distribute documents to members of the committee only when the documents are available in both official languages and that witnesses be advised accordingly.

Mr. Chair, this is a very important issue.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

It's typical for us to do that.

(Motion agreed to)

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

For working meals, I move:

That the clerk of the committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide working meals for the committee and its subcommittees.

(Motion agreed to)

For witnesses expenses, I move:

That, if requested, reasonable travel, accommodation and living expenses be reimbursed to witnesses not exceeding two (2) representatives per organization; provided that, in exceptional circumstances, payment for more representatives be made at the discretion of the chair.

(Motion agreed to)

For staff at in camera meetings, I move:

That, unless otherwise ordered, each committee member be allowed to have one staff member at an in camera meeting and that one additional person from each House officer's office be allowed to be present.

(Motion agreed to)

For the in camera meeting transcripts, I move:

That one copy of the transcript of each in camera meeting be kept in the committee clerk's office for consultation by members of the committee or by their staff.

(Motion agreed to)

For notices of motions, I move:

That forty-eight (48) hours' notice, interpreted as two (2) nights, shall be required for any substantive motion to be considered by the committee, unless the substantive motion relates directly to business then under consideration, provided that (1) the notice be filed with the clerk of the committee no later than 4:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday; that (2) the motion be distributed to members in both official languages by the clerk on the same day the said notice was transmitted if it was received no later than the deadline hour; and that (3) notices received after the deadline hour or on non-business days be deemed to have been received during the next business day and that when the committee is travelling on official business, no substantive motions may be moved.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Thank you for that.

Ms. Zann, go ahead.

[Lenore Zann, Liberal, Cumberland—Colchester, NS]

There's one more, Mr. Chair, regarding independent members and clause-by-clause. I move:

That, in relation to Orders of Reference from the House respecting Bills, (a) the clerk of the committee shall, upon the committee receiving such an Order of Reference, write to each member who is not a member of a caucus represented on the committee to invite those members to file with the clerk of the committee, in both official languages, any amendments to the Bill, which is the subject of the said order, which they would suggest that the committee consider; (b) suggested amendments filed, pursuant to paragraph (a), at least 48 hours prior to the start of clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill to which the amendments relate shall be deemed to be proposed during the said consideration, provided that the committee may, by motion, vary this deadline in respect of a given Bill; and(c) during the clause-by-clause consideration of a Bill, the chair shall allow a member who filed suggested amendments, pursuant to paragraph (a), an opportunity to make brief representations in support of them.

(Motion agreed to)

That is the last one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

We have our routine motions in place.

Is there any other business of the committee?

Yes, Mr. Schmale.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you, Chair. It will be great to work with everyone on this committee. I think it's going to be a very interesting one, where we can get a lot of work done.

My suggestion can be in the form of a motion if you want, Chair, or however the committee feels we should proceed.

We—and I'm sure others—have a bunch of motions that we'd like to table. Instead of reading out each one and discussing them, would it be more efficient to table our motions with the clerk so that we all have a chance to look them over? Then, in place of Thursday's regularly scheduled meeting, we could change that to a steering committee meeting so it can decide how best to proceed going forward, allowing us to start fresh a week from now on whatever topic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

How does the committee feel?

Jaime.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

[Member spoke in Mi’kmaq]

[English]

I just start off always speaking in my Mi’kmaq language, and what I did was acknowledge the territory of the Algonquins.

I grew up next to Grand Captain Alexander Denny. He always said, when we were looking at discussing indigenous issues, in order to get a balanced understanding of where we're going, we should first know where we have been. One of the things that not everyone in Canada has been privileged to be able to get education around is indigenous issues and some of the history around colonization within Canada.

One of the first things that I think would set the tone well, as a historic first for this committee, is for us to do some training and to really understand the issues that we're about to discuss and put forward in priorities. The TRC in its calls to action was pretty adamant that we need increased education and training in all areas, and one of them is for us as parliamentarians. I really feel that we could get off on the right foot if we took a historic first for this committee and did something that would increase our knowledge around indigenous history.

Before I became an MP, I was the treaty education lead for Nova Scotia, and I was able to be part of a first there when the provincial cabinet in Nova Scotia took part in a blanket exercise and then had presentations done from groups that informed them about indigenous history.

What I would like to recommend is, following the calls to action, to seek first to listen, to understand and to really get a sense of what the history is...what we are trying to do differently. By taking part in a blanket exercise as our next convened meeting, this could be something that not only we but our staffs could take part in, and it would give us a really good sense of the history that we've been through in Canada and a sense of being able to move forward on this committee by learning first, by listening first, by understanding first and then moving forward with the priorities and values we've come to understand from this.

That would be my recommendation, that first we figure out and take two hours of our time and do a blanket exercise where we would be able to understand the history of indigenous people and the history of Canada in a way that puts us on a good path toward working together for the indigenous people across Canada.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

I think we can accommodate both of these discussions, but Gary, would you like to comment?

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

Yes. I was just going to echo that, Mr. Chair.

Maybe we start off with a blanket ceremony and then proceed to what Jamie had proposed that we put in the motions, and once the motions are there, maybe have some discussions among each other off-line to see what kind of study we could prioritize.

I'm not sure if it's feasible to do it for this Thursday, but we could certainly do it the next Tuesday and then have the planning meeting the following Thursday, which will allow us to dive into the study right after that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bob Bratina]

Marcus.