Industry Committee on Feb. 20th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I just want to make sure in terms of clarity that the proposal we agreed on in terms of the motion is that this committee, from my understanding from the analysts, will receive a briefing note from the clerk of the trade committee with respect to Bill C-4, the new NAFTA, the CUSMA. It will be circulated for everyone to give us a chance to read it. We will see if we can get a witness list from the clerk. As soon as we can get it, we will definitely share that with you.

If it's possible for all parties to provide witness lists to the clerk of this committee by 9 a.m. tomorrow, again, that can be adjusted if we only receive the list of witnesses from the trade committee tomorrow morning. I want to be flexible, understanding that if you haven't received the information, I don't want to penalize you for not having that information in front of you.

If we do receive it today, can we say that by 9 o'clock tomorrow morning you would provide your witness lists? That way, it gives the clerk time to actually invite folks for Monday morning and make sure they are prepared and able to come on Monday.

I just want to double-check with respect to the timing for availability. We will try to have a meeting of this committee from.... I'm looking at a four-hour window. Just to make sure, are you suggesting an 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. meeting of this committee on Monday morning?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Okay.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Unfortunately, yes, or nine until one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Okay.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

My colleagues' preference....

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Then, for a second meeting in the evening, could you provide a suggestion, perhaps, for committee members?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'm looking for the will of the room, but what I'm thinking is it would be from eight to 12, and then we'd have written submissions in by 12. That would give us the afternoon, in theory, to consider a written.... This is so crazy. It gives us the afternoon to consider thousands of pages of evidence, and then we should be meeting again at five or four, post QP...?

I'm looking to my colleagues.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Mr. Masse.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Why don't we do it right after QP? We treat it like a regular meeting and see how long that goes for us. No matter what time we pick, we're probably going to have problems. I do worry a bit about people getting into Ottawa on Monday morning. I'll just raise that. I know that people will make their travel plans right now. It won't be a problem for me, at any rate, but for some people, with regard to their flights getting in there, it's a challenge.

At any rate, it is what it is, and I think that right after QP we'll get back at it and see if we can finish the job and get it done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Ms. Lambropoulos.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

I'm okay with the 8-to-12 meeting. However, can we push the afternoon meeting until a bit later? I don't have any staff on the Hill at the moment, and I'm going to be trying my best to come up with some good recommendations. A little bit later would help in my case.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Any suggestions, Ms. Rempel Garner?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Five o'clock?

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Okay. We will convene a meeting at 8 now. If we do not have any witnesses available.... I think we might have the chief negotiator available, but we'll double-check the availability of witnesses.

If there are no witnesses available at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, do you still want the meeting to start at 8 a.m.? Or would you like us to advise you of when witnesses are actually available? I know that I'm getting into the logistics here, but I want to make sure that folks know what we're in for.

Mr. Masse.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

On all of these, I'm going to cede to your judgment on how to deal with these logistics and also even on dealing with witnesses and so forth. We're on a tight timeline, so I'm comfortable with having you make a couple of independent calls on these things, Madam Chair, with the window being so tight.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you.

Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I would just reiterate the comment that my colleague Mr. Masse made earlier. If we can have teleconferences, let's try to get that done.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Absolutely. In terms of efficiency, I agree.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Also, given that we're doing this on Monday morning, there might be logistics with people on the west coast and in Alberta and Saskatchewan, so we can try to accommodate that as well. If there's somebody who can't be accommodated in that morning block and there's some consensus, I would leave it to your discretion to see when we're going to be doing that on Monday. I'm planning to clear the day. I am happy to leave that to the discretion of the analysts, but where possible we can use teleconferences as opposed to excluding someone because they can't get child care or get on a plane at the last minute when we're inviting them to speak.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Absolutely. In terms of efficiency, I think this is definitely the way to go.

Based on the recommendations that we get from you for witnesses, we will immediately start communicating with them to see about their availability for an invitation on Monday, taking into consideration that inviting someone from B.C. to present at 8 a.m. might be a problem. Perhaps we can invite them to the later meeting that's happening. Of course, we will get back to you, and the clerk will let us know the timing. I appreciate your flexibility on this. I know there's a tight timeline.

With that, we have some notices of motions that have been put forth to the committee. If it is the will of the committee, perhaps we can look at those.

Yes, Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Are we on the topic of discussing motions for future business?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

The motions that we have received, yes.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Okay. Actually, I'll cede the floor to my colleague Mr. Masse because I think he is probably going to go ahead.