Evidence of meeting #2 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Looking at the export and import aspect of the agreement, are there issues that are squarely of concern to our colleague on quotas? It would appear to me that would cover the issue that you're speaking to.
Given the tight timelines to ensure that we have witnesses by Monday and that we would essentially just be dabbling in this, I think that wouldn't be a particularly productive use of our time.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I don't see any issue with adding this extra point in here, on a couple of grounds, one being the possibility of overlap. Seeing as how we have such a small window here, I don't think we're going to be overlapping any of the other studies the other committees are going to be doing. If we want to be able to have a fulsome discussion here, I don't think we need to let other committees tell us what we can or can't be studying as well, right?
These three points flow nicely with adding this fourth point as well, so I see no harm in adding it. Quite frankly, the vast majority of the people who will be speaking on aluminum and steel from the manufacturing aspect are going to be agricultural-based companies and exporter groups.
I think there is good value in adding ag and agriculture producers to the motion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you.
Are there any other questions or comments?
Seeing none, we will now call the vote on the amendment.
(Amendment agreed to)
Now we will go back to the original motion with the amendment—the addition of agriculture—and will make sure that we have the exact wording.
Is there any other debate or comments with respect to the rest of the motion?
I have a question for Ms. Rempel Garner.
With respect to the four hours prior to noon on Monday, February 24, would that be for meetings starting on Monday, or meetings as of the end of this meeting—so meetings tomorrow, Friday and Monday? I want to get clarity on that, if you could.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
Sure. I'm just thinking that, for the sake of the analysts and the clerk and other colleagues, we're probably going to need at least 24 hours to invite witnesses. The purpose of this motion was to get a notice out today. I don't know what the protocol is, but I would assume it's a press release or something, an open call to stakeholders for written submissions to be received by noon on Monday. I guess some people will be working on the weekend.
Perhaps that call could also include that if there is already stuff prepared to get it in as soon as possible, which the analysts could then distribute to the committee so we could start reviewing it over the weekend. I would think that witness names should be in ASAP, for obvious reasons.
For the four hours on Monday morning, I know there was some interest from my colleagues on perhaps having the commissioner come in for part of that. I'm looking at my colleagues across the way, if they want to speak to that. Then it would be the typical four-witness panels, and then as many as we have....
What I'm also hoping is that, depending on how many witnesses we have, with any additional time we have that morning, we can start considering evidence. The analysts are going to need time. I think their Monday night is going to be fairly busy. That way, we can start putting a report together and then perhaps consider the final version on Tuesday. That would hopefully give us enough time in the afternoon to turn it around in both official languages. Giddy-up.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
It sounds as though we'll have a lot of different witnesses who are interested in submitting briefs and maybe attending. However, in addition to other witnesses, the first witness I think would be useful—and who I know would be available Monday morning and I was hoping would have been available today—is the lead negotiator, who could then explain why we are seeing some of the changes we're seeing. If we want to put some questions to him and the officials with him about other provisions within the context of the motion, I think that would be fair game, obviously, as well.
I think that would be a useful starting point for Monday morning. I know he would be available.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Is there any further debate on the motion before you?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
In addition to the motion that is before us, we have some other business in front of us. We have various notices of motion. Additionally, the committee has received the notice of tabling of the supplementary estimates (B) for us to discuss. Because we are in committee business, I would like to ask the committee how they would like to proceed.
Do we want to proceed with immediately discussing Bill C-4, given the very short timeline that we have to discuss this with respect to potential witnesses, or would we like to maybe give a deadline of when we could submit our witness lists to the clerk? I am throwing this out there. I am looking at the clerk, who is probably hoping to get that list sooner rather than later.
Ms. Rempel Garner.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I'm looking to colleagues for input on this. I would really like to get the witness list from trade, if possible, for us to consider. If we could get that, I'm thinking tomorrow morning for witness lists coming in. Is nine o'clock tomorrow morning acceptable so that we can consider the information that comes in and talk to colleagues. Also—I'm just putting it out there—I would be willing to have informal conversations as well, because I'm thinking we're going to have overlap.
February 20th, 2020 / 11:20 a.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Is that a deadline for submitting our own witnesses as well—tomorrow at nine o'clock?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Is that acceptable to everybody?
Do you agree that we submit our witness lists to the clerk tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.?
Mr. Masse and then Mr. Ehsassi.
The Clerk
It's just the logistics of them. If we can set those up in time, we can for sure. Depending on where the witness is located, having less than 48 hours' notice is incredibly challenging. If we can do it, we will.
Liberal
Ali Ehsassi Liberal Willowdale, ON
Just in terms of timing—and this could be just me being confused—if the deadline for our receipt of the witness list from trade is nine o'clock tomorrow, could the deadline for us to consider who we want to invite be around noon or one o'clock, just to give us an opportunity to review it thoroughly?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
I don't think the deadline to receive the list from trade was nine o'clock tomorrow morning. We're going to ask the clerk to see if we can get that as soon as possible and circulate it so that, in your deliberations of who you would like to invite, you can eliminate people who have already provided testimony. I believe that is correct.
Ms. Rempel Garner.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
That doesn't stop us from inviting people again. I know that this might not be possible, but whatever information we can get from the analysts at the trade committee, with regard to whether there's any sort of summary of evidence or any sort of preliminary stuff.... I don't know how that works procedurally. I'm just thinking that we could even start looking at the blues to inform our question writing, our witness lists and our evidence.
Francis Lord
I've just asked the clerk to distribute to you a research paper on CUSMA by the library. It covers many of the things in this motion. I think it's about 40 pages long. It's selected information linked to the clauses of the bill. That's going to be useful to you.
I can't guarantee that I'm going to be able to create a briefing note that is tailored to this committee by Monday morning, but I will be reading the briefings that come in so that we're ready to help you draft recommendations by Monday night. That would be depending on the size of it.
The only constraint is translation. If you approve it by noon, then that's a four-hour translation window. It's three hours, more realistically speaking. We're looking at something that is maybe 800 words. We could do some of the translation ourselves, but we're not as qualified as the House translators.
Conservative
Michelle Rempel Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
That's why I'm thinking that for the meeting on Monday night if we can at least get it part of the way there, on Tuesday it will be a little easier in the afternoon to get that done. But here we are, right?
