Evidence of meeting #1 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mcteague.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I want to clarify something. If we get to round four, would the New Democratic Party be first in round four, or are we moving the New Democratic Party from round four up to round two?
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
The proposal, as I understand it, would leave the NDP in first spot at round four. Round four would stay exactly as it's written here, so the NDP would have a first spot.
That's the current proposal.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
If the NDP are moving up to round two and we're giving up round three, perhaps we can move to number one in round four. Does that sound reasonable? I know--how often do we get there?
Does that sound good?
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Then the only issue, I think, is whether round one is six minutes or seven.
Mr. McTeague.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
I understand full well, Mr. Crête, but if there's no reduction from seven to six minutes, it won't be possible to accommodate the NDP on round two. I know that this is not something we need to debate, as Mr. Crête already said. Perhaps we should be flexible. If it doesn't work, we can revisit the issue later.
11:25 a.m.
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I suggest that we try a first round of six minutes, to begin with.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
I just want to clarify for all members that it's not written here, but the chair can ask as many questions as he wants, any time he wants.
Just to be clear, round one is six minutes, as outlined; round two is five minutes, but adding the NDP at the end of that round; round three is five minutes each, replacing the Conservative Party with Monsieur Arthur; and in round four, the Conservative Party would move to first place and the New Democratic Party to fourth place.
Mr. Masse.
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
That's the full agenda for us here today.
The last thing I do want to talk about, just for a few minutes, is mainly for the next meeting on Thursday morning at 11 a.m. I want all of you to have discussions with your colleagues and with your own staff and to bring forward ideas for the committee to study.
We don't have any bills before the committee. In the last session of Parliament there was an awful lot of legislative work at this committee. Right now we have no pieces of legislation on industry before the House; we have a fairly open agenda, so I want you to bring forward your ideas.
When you do so, I want you to think with respect to ways of getting other parties to agree. It would be nice to have a consensus in terms of the areas of study for us.
On Mr. Masse's point from earlier in the meeting, in the last session a very big study was selected. It was perhaps too broad for the mandate of the committee, or too big. Perhaps we ought to look at doing some smaller studies and accomplishing some things.
I encourage you to get to know the members. As an example, Mr. Fontana has an interest in science and technology issues, so if you have a motion on that issue, you can look to him, perhaps, to support it from his side, and maybe you would want to discuss it with him.
I know Mr. Carrie, Mr. Masse, Mr. Holland, and Mr. McTeague are interested in the auto industry. Monsieur Lapierre in the Bloc is interested in the aerospace industry. Is there something on manufacturing we can do?
Look for areas in which we can do some broad-based studies and be effective and substantive. That's my goal for the committee.
Mr. Fontana, did you want to comment?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Joe Fontana Liberal London North Centre, ON
That's good guidance, Mr. Chairman, but because we're only here for the next four or five weeks, assuming the schedule stays in place, could I suggest that rather than taking a week just to think about what we might do, we take maybe half an hour--I don't know how long we have the room for--to talk a little bit about some broad issues we might want to discuss?
As the first order of our business, Mr. Chairman, can I suggest that we invite the Minister of Industry here for our next meeting? Surely finding out where the government will go.... We have a budget; we have a throne speech that essentially outlines a number of viewpoints. First and foremost, we would want to talk to the minister as the first item of business, and at the same time talk a little bit about where we want to go in terms of studies and/or particular motions.
I thought perhaps we could establish that next Tuesday, if that's going to be our time. Even though I think we meet Thursdays, too--Tuesdays and Thursdays--we might do some broad work with regard to some of the items we might want to talk about, be they gasoline or manufacturing or even science and technology, or whatever the case may be.
Also, perhaps, if it's not possible today, meeting again on Thursday for the purposes of talking--
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Joe Fontana Liberal London North Centre, ON
Okay, we'll meet on Thursday--is that established already?--so that we can talk about that, but can we at least make sure the minister will be here next Tuesday, as the first order of business?
11:30 a.m.
Conservative
Colin Carrie Conservative Oshawa, ON
I'm sure the minister would like to attend. It's just a matter of scheduling, of course, so I would not like, at this time, to commit the minister to being here next Tuesday. But it's something I'd be happy to bring forward.
11:35 a.m.
Conservative
11:35 a.m.
NDP
Brian Masse NDP Windsor West, ON
I know scheduling is difficult, but maybe in the interests.... The minister probably has an interest in meeting his committee; I think it's a great idea that we open up maybe even Wednesday, or a special meeting, if scheduling is a problem. We've done that in the past to ensure that we can have access to the minister. We really should do that; as a first order of business, it would be the thing to do.
11:35 a.m.
Bloc
Paul Crête Bloc Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
I like the idea of having the minister appear as soon as his schedule permits. We could give him some leeway in terms of choosing a date. I also really liked Mr. Fontana's idea of trying to decide where we want to go. Keep in mind that we just got the estimates and we'll have to deal with them. And if I recall correctly, the House has referred the Privacy Act to us for review.
One of the priorities of the Bloc Québécois will definitely be the current situation of the manufacturing sector. We think we will be able to make recommendations to the government quite quickly. All parties are now dealing with a new reality. Things have changed since the last election. We have to deal with the economic reality of today and the next two years.
Finally, the gasoline issue could be considered in terms of its impact on the economy. Currently, everyone in that economic sector is facing a huge challenge.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
Mr. Chair, you gave at the outset a fairly broad-brush sketch, if you will, of some of the issues the committee may be interested in. I want to go back to Mr. Fontana's comments, and I appreciate the parliamentary secretary's responses as to the availability of the minister.
As a committee, as you quite rightly pointed out, we don't have bills before us. As a first step, it would be helpful to get an idea of where the minister sees his department and sees the overall economic performance of the country. We haven't had this kind of overview in some time. A lot, of course, has happened, so I would ask the parliamentary secretary, if I could, to get back to us on Thursday with a date--that this be almost a first order of business, just as an idea of where we're going and how we're going to get there.
It's good to have the various recommendations we've talked about. We have had discussions among our own colleagues; there is interest in areas of manufacturing, aerospace, gasoline, and of course research and development, science and technology. Those tend to be areas in which there could be consensus, considering the involvement of other members, but first and foremost, I think it's absolutely imperative that we have the minister here.
11:35 a.m.
Liberal
Jean Lapierre Liberal Outremont, QC
I insist on how important it is to meet the minister. I, like perhaps some of my colleagues here, had the benefit of attending a briefing session held by the Department of Industry. In answering each one of my questions, departmental officials said that they were not informed of the department's political direction. I received 28 identical answers to the 28 questions I asked.
Quite simply, it is important to meet with the minister. The perception is that the political direction of the department has not been announced. Perhaps the minister will wish to surprise us, here in committee. It is a priority. As for the rest, I believe that it will be relatively easy to come to a consensus.
I listened to Mr. Crête talk about the manufacturing sector. All regions across the country are affected by the strength of the dollar. The situation is cause for concern and has a major impact on employment. Of course, consumers are victims of gas prices. Certain topics that we will be discussing are obvious. Therefore, we will not need several meetings to set the agenda. However, we must know the minister's position.