Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 1st, 2022

[Valerie Gideon]

My colleagues here have been travelling to various jurisdictions in order to ensure that this is prioritized.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Ms. Idlout.

This concludes our questions.

I would like to thank the associate deputy minister, Ms. Gideon.

Thanks as well to ADM Wilkinson and Director General El Bied.

Thank you for your testimonies today and for answering all our questions. We very much appreciate it. Thank you.

With that, Mr. Vidal has a point he wants to make.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to move the motion that we talked about on Monday and just make sure we deal with it today, as we had deferred it.

I move the following motion:

That the evidence received by the public accounts committee on the study of Emergency Management in First Nations Communities, Report 8 of the 2022 Reports of the Auditor General of Canada on Friday, November 25, 2022, be taken into consideration by the committee in its study of Arctic sovereignty, security and emergency preparedness of indigenous peoples.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Vidal.

Does anybody want to comment?

Go ahead, Mr. Badawey.

[Vance Badawey, Liberal, Niagara Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I appreciate to some extent what Mr. Vidal is trying to do here with respect to getting more information on the table on this study, but I have to say this. I've given this a lot of thought. At first I thought it wasn't a problem, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought about how inappropriate it is.

I'm a former chair, as you know, Mr. Chairman. When I look at procedure and I look at the integrity of committee—the key word is here “integrity”—I just think it's inappropriate. It's highly inappropriate. Let me dig a bit deeper into why.

This committee, when it brings out witnesses, has the ability—any committee has the ability—to further question or expand on the dialogue, as we did today, with any one of the witnesses giving that testimony, making sure of the credibility and ensuring the accountability of the comments being made. Otherwise, if we don't have that ability as members of this committee, or of any committee for that matter, in the House of Commons, then any testimony becomes arbitrary. Therefore, really, we don't need to have members come out. We can just simply ask them for a summary: Hand it in. The analysts would take it. Regardless of what we think in terms of trying to rebut with questions or trying to draw down and get more granular, the comments being brought forward to committee would simply be arbitrary.

Quite frankly, Mr. Chairman, that's just not right. That's not why we're here, as members of any committee. We are here to listen to testimony, to question testimony and to have dialogue with those who are providing testimony. That's the very purpose of committee. That's the very integrity of the committee and of the members who sit around this horseshoe when we bring out witnesses. Therefore, to ensure that through this dialogue, through this testimony that ultimately goes to the analysts, we therefore can participate in what we expect to come back from the minister with regard to the recommendations we bring forward.... Of course, there's the response from the department, vis-à-vis the minister, that they would bring, and then, of course, it's prepared to go to the House.

I just think it's highly inappropriate. It is a public document. It's sitting there. It can be referred to by anybody who can look at it, whether it's members of the committee or anybody else, for that matter. However, for it to be brought into this committee, once again, simply makes it arbitrary testimony.

Once again, Mr. Chairman, I feel that it is highly inappropriate.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Thank you, Mr. Badawey.

We're going to have a show of hands on this, or a vote, but before that, does anybody else wish to add anything?

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

I'd like to call the question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

Go ahead. The question is called.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

[The Chair, Liberal, Marc Garneau]

I declare the motion carried.

That brings us to the end.

Just as a reminder, colleagues, next Monday we will be looking at Bill S-219. In the first hour we'll be hearing from witnesses. In the second hour we'll be going over it clause by clause. If anybody has an amendment to make, please submit it by noon tomorrow.

With that, this meeting is adjourned.