Industry Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I'm sorry to be a pain this morning.

How much time will our researchers and analysts need for a small, short summary of the fraud study?

I wonder whether we are able to get a consolidated report on that, and perhaps if we do have any recommendations, I wonder whether we need a half meeting or something small to deal with that.

I would just like to see something come out of what we do on that, so that it could be distributed to the public. I was hoping our analysts might be able at least to compress a small report. Knowing the background of that, I would consider it quite valuable.

[Francis Lord, Committee Researcher]

That's what I understood, that there would be a report regarding the fraudulent calls study.

Given the timing with the other study on which you wanted to have a report, you'd start to review your report in June. I'm sure the chair is going to discuss it, but you would probably need to dedicate the April meetings to the telecommunications study. Once you're done with those hearings, you would be ready to review the report on fraudulent calls. I think this should fit together nicely.

Given that it's going to be two meetings at the most, it should be a short report. I think you're going to be able to wrap all of this up in May.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

That's perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

You have in front of you the press release. Perhaps you'd like to have a moment to review it and we'll open up the floor for comments and questions. We'll also just go over the schedule in terms of sliding in when this study will happen.

Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Do you need a motion to approve it?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I'd like people to have a chance to read it, and then perhaps we could have a motion to approve.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Sure. That's good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you.

Mr. Erskine-Smith.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

One small change I would say is to launch a new study on the affordability and accessibility of telecommunications in Canada, and then examine several aspects, including the 5G expansion, and not include accessibility and affordability there as a subtopic but make it the overarching topic.

The second thing I would say is that March 20, 2020, is an unnecessarily short period of time in which to submit a brief, if this study is to extend well beyond March 20. I expect us to have witnesses attending before us leading into April, so I don't know why we would set such an early deadline for briefs. I don't know what the deadline should be, but even the end of April would be fine by me, because I don't expect us to wrap this up in a short period of time.

Last, it would be helpful if the analysts could provide us with a list of proposed witnesses by Friday, March 6. We could then discuss that the following week and hammer out at least a preliminary set of witnesses we would invite. It would be helpful to have two smart people thinking about it before I think about it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

My apologies. Your proposal is to have them further....

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I suggested, just randomly, the end of April, because that seems a lot of time and I think we'll still be dealing with it at that point. However, I'm open to suggestions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I want to clarify that the reason we made the deadline a little shorter than when the actual witnesses would be here is to give a chance for the analysts to actually collect all the submissions, make sure they're in both official languages, and so on, because we have such a short, compressed calendar, and to make sure that we finish in time for a June submission.

The thought was that we would make sure we have the written briefs before we actually start seeing all the witnesses, but if it's the will of the committee to make that a little later, it's the will of the committee.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

How about no deadline? I just don't see the rush in setting a deadline. I don't think we'll get a lot of people submitting briefs by March 20 if we send this out now. I would prefer that individuals and organizations have more of an opportunity to submit something. We can also invite those who we want as witnesses.

It's not the biggest deal for me, but I would think a later date makes a bit more sense. We're not going to start this study until March 24. I don't think we need all the briefs in before we even start it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Ms. Rempel Garner.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Maybe as a way to make sure that the analysts have time to do work, in future committee business, once we've done four or five meetings on this, we can take half an hour and determine who else we need to hear from.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Sure.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

That's just so the analysts have some direction on where we're going so it's not just a big rush at the end, and that's fine with me.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Would some time earlier in April or mid-April be sufficient timing, or was March 20 set for a particular...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I will ask the analyst, who would be the one who is dealing with their work.

[Sarah Lemelin-Bellerose, Committee Researcher]

No. If it's earlier in mid-April, it would be fine. It's just that in past studies, it would often happen that we would get the deadline on the last day of the study when we started drafting the report—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Yes, of course.

[Sarah Lemelin-Bellerose]

—and then it is a lot. Everything always arrives on almost the last day of the deadline.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

In that case, why don't we say something like April 9? That gives some more time, and I don't think would get in the way. I do things last minute, too, so it makes sense to set an earlier date than the end of our study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Are there any other comments with respect to the press release?

Are there any comments about the amendment to change the deadline for submissions to April 9?

I will ask for a motion to adopt the press release.

Madam Rempel Garner.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Sure, with the proposed change, I so move.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])