Evidence of meeting #137 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was businesses.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
The member from Northwest Territories spoke about his own heritage. I think that's what I'm hearing from many members in my community and communities across the country. They're upset about this. They want to make sure we hear from the people who did this. It's simple. They just need to show up at the committee. If they're not doing that, Parliament has measures to have them show up at committee to answer for what they've done.
That's as simple as it gets, I think, for us. It's not just we who have expectations of these potential witnesses; it's Canadians who want them to answer for what they've done.
Liberal
Liberal
Jaime Battiste Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Can we give you the discretion on how to handle this and get a budget without you calling us back to a meeting?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
The challenge is that we need to have another meeting to adopt a budget.
Liberal
Liberal
Jaime Battiste Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
All right. We'll give you the latitude to get that done by the end of January.
Liberal
Conservative
Jamie Schmale Conservative Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON
How do members feel about adopting it by the end of January?
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
If it's just a matter of meeting to discuss it, we could do that at the next scheduled meeting. I realize that that meeting is affected by the economic statement, which will be tabled at 4 p.m., but it's scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Assuming there's no vote, and I would be surprised if there are any on Monday, we could use that half hour to vote on this quickly. Alternatively, we could ask for a slot on Monday morning or Tuesday. We were able to spontaneously carve out seven hours for committee meetings on two of the last three Tuesdays, so I think we could find time to meet.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
We don't want to ruin Christmas here, Monsieur Lemire.
I'm sorry. Give me just a minute.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I just want to ask if this has ever been done before. Have we brought in people and forced them to come to the committee?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
It's certainly not anything that I am aware of, but it sounds like there are other folks who might be able to speak to that.
First, let me go to Mr. Lemire.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
For the committee's information, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage did it by summoning the Hockey Canada executives. That was the legal route the committee chose. I believe Mr. Shields was there, in fact. Their testimony ultimately altered the trajectory of many decisions about sport in Canada.
Liberal
Jaime Battiste Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
Because the House order specifies the 17th, we would need to amend that. I think we've said that the chair and the clerk of the committee would be empowered to action the necessary details pertaining to the contract for the use of a skip tracer, and we targeted the end of January.
Does that make sense for everyone?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Patrick Weiler
I'm sorry. Mr. Battiste, could you repeat that very slowly, both for the members' purposes and for the clerk and the analysts?
Liberal
