Industry Committee on Dec. 1st, 2020

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

It's left over. I apologize.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you.

Is there any further debate?

MP Lambropoulos.

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

I just want to be sure of this. Obviously, at this point, we would be seeing all four ministers in two meetings, which would free up one meeting, correct? So, we would be able to finish the telecom study.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Just so that you know, we also have the competition commissioner scheduled. I'm not sure if it's the will of the committee to keep that one on, or to reschedule that. That would be an instruction to the clerk. We would need clarification on that.

MP Erskine-Smith.

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

We're not going to conclude our work on the wireless study any time soon. We're going to come back in the new year, and there are going to be recommendations that we make. I don't think we have to be too intense about the schedule to make sure that we get one final meeting in.

The competition commissioner, on the other hand—and this follows on from our work in July on the grocers—literally attended a national grocers innovation conference, highlighted the work of this committee and said that he shared our concerns. He subsequently published very late last month—I think it was November 27 or November 28—an interpretation bulletin of sorts as to wage-fixing in Canada. I think it would be very useful for us to revisit that with the competition commissioner, following on from our work in July. That is timely in a way that.... With regard to Brian's point, we studied the issue of wireless services a great deal in the last parliament at this committee. I don't dismiss the importance of it, but it's not going to go away tomorrow. We should make sure that we do that right, but I don't think that one meeting before we rise has much magic to it.

I would certainly encourage us to keep the competition commissioner.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Okay.

MP Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to add one factor to this parallel debate.

As I see it, we have one essential meeting left in order to comply with the spirit of the motion we as a committee have adopted. It is to have a minimum of two meetings to conclude the topic of high-speed Internet access before December 14. In that way, we could produce a report that would be finished and translated during the break, ready for our return in January. Then we could table it in the House in February.

The potential election window would not make our work null and void. In my opinion, it is critical.

In my view, we absolutely must have a meeting, the one that we had scheduled for today. We have an elephant in the room, and its name is Bell. Having players like Telus, Videotron and Rogers at its side seems essential to me.

I do not feel that we can complete the subject if we have not met with Bell. Consequently, my wish for us is to be able to table a report, as we had the opportunity to do on Friday. I was very proud when Ms. Romanado rose in the House to say that our committee had submitted a report. That is why we do the work. That is why we invite witnesses and make recommendations. We must be able to get this done.

I feel that it is extremely important to invite the Competition Commissioner. I will have a lot of questions for him. If I were to establish an order, because that's what this time issue is all about, I would like us to finish what we voted on previously: the study on Internet accessibility and affordability, and the cellular network in rural regions.

After that, if we have meetings in the week after the 14th, we can hear from the Competition Commissioner then, or in January.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much.

I would like to clarify one thing. We have already had the two meetings about accessibility and affordability. We were supposed to hear from the Bell representatives today. However, today, four members of the committee asked us to move the meeting with the Bell representatives.

Right now, we have a lot of scheduling issues. We have the motion before us and the amendment to the motion to invite ministers for one and a half hours each. The problem is that we're running out of runway.

I need to get some clarity. Right now, we have the competition commissioner scheduled, I believe, for this Thursday—the clerk is nodding his head. We're also assuming that all the ministers happen to have free agendas for the next times that INDU is meeting.

I want to make sure that I'm managing expectations appropriately. If it is the will of the committee to reach out to the ministers to invite them, but they do not have availability for this Thursday, but we're able to continue to keep the competition commissioner.... I don't want to cancel a meeting and not have anyone.

I want to make sure that folks are understanding. We have multiple studies ongoing right now. We have multiple requests for those meetings to be allocated to specific studies, so I need clarification from the committee on what the committee wants to be doing between now and December 11, again assuming that the week of December 14 we can add additional meetings. I do not have confirmation of that, but we will get back to you. However, I need to get clarity for the clerk.

We have an amendment to the motion that we're discussing today: to invite the ministers for one and a half hours each to come and speak to the committee with regard to the study proposed.

Is there any further debate on that amendment?

MP Dreeshen.

We don't hear you at all, MP Dreeshen. I'm not sure if your microphone is no longer plugged in, but it's not working at all. Do you want to try to maybe unplug it and plug it back in? I know the famous IT solution is to reboot.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Yes. Thank you.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

I'm going to take off my headphone.

I guess the one point that I was trying to make is that from December 14 to December 18, if the other committees haven't scheduled meetings—because they are as concerned as we are about whether or not that is possible—would that be an opportunity for us then to expand the time? Instead of being restricted to two hours, we would be able to do three or four hours at that point in time because there won't be all of the other issues with regard to question period and so on and so forth.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I'm going to ask the clerk to pipe in here, and then I will go to MP Lemire.

[The Clerk]

Basically, the issue would be that the committee does not have the House's authority to hold a hybrid meeting during the period from December 14 to December 18. Absent that authority, you would be looking at possibly having an in-person meeting, which would bring into effect a lot of the quarantine issues, even just the issues in the room of how our rooms are set up physically. I would have to find, perhaps, a bigger room that would accommodate 12 members, which would be rather difficult at present.

[Earl Dreeshen, Conservative, Red Deer—Mountain View, AB]

Madam Chair, if you can still hear me.... In response to the question, I understand that, but my point is that, if we can get authority—and I understand that we can't make decisions without having that authority—to have hybrid meetings from December 14 until December 18 and there is not the added pressure of other committees' being held, that should allow us to expand the amount of time we would have. I know this is all speculative, but I'm wondering if that might help us to be able to alleviate some of the concerns we have.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Thank you very much, MP Dreeshen.

I'm going to go to MP Lemire.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I just wanted someone to confirm to me that timeslots are still available and that it will be possible to request additional meetings before December 12. Perhaps one or two meetings could be held. This would allow us to concentrate all our interests together into more intensive sessions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

So, Mr. Lemire, your proposal is to add more meetings between today and December 12.

Is that correct?

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Since it is possible, yes, that is what I am asking for.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

The clerk has just explained to me that we have no more room available for additional meetings before December 11.

After December 11, we are no longer allowed to hold hybrid meetings. If the House passes a motion that allows us to hold them in the week of December 14, then we could add hybrid meetings.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Would it be possible to check once more that no timeslots are available?

I was told that slots were available.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

I will ask the clerk to check that. We can send you an update about the possibility.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

MP Lambropoulos.

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

I'm sorry to be annoying, but I think we should maybe move the meeting of the competition commissioner, considering the fact that today we had a meeting scheduled and we pushed them.... I would suggest seeing whether they're available to come on Thursday instead, if it's the will of the committee. I really think that's a priority of some of the members on this committee.

As much as we can get some great information from the competition commissioner, I think telecoms are really important as well, and the quicker we could get on with the study and the quicker we can have a report made for our committee to consider, the better.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sherry Romanado]

Right now, there are many invariables before us.

MP Cumming, I'll get right to you in a moment

To the folks on the committee, know that I will do my best, if this motion is adopted, to schedule according to the wishes of the committee. However, I do not have control over schedules for ministers and agendas and so on and so forth.

If it is the will of the committee, what I can do is immediately get in touch with the ministers to check availability. If there is no availability for ministers this Thursday, what we could do is verify who is available.

Right now we have the competition commissioner; we could verify whether Bell is available—again checking availability, so that we do not lose any additional slots—and I can be back to the committee with a little draft schedule with respect to what is possible between now and December 11, if that is the will of the committee.

Right now, we're getting into a lot of the weeds on logistics, and I want to express to the committee that you have my commitment that whatever is the will of the committee for us to do, I will do my best to do, working with the constraints of the House and with the clerk to schedule accordingly.

I want to make sure that folks know that. Rest assured, we will check all of these things before booking; I do not want to lose any more meeting dates. If we do not have any ministers available, if this motion passes, for this Thursday, I do not want to have a situation in which we're cancelling a meeting. I wanted to clarify that with folks.

MP Cumming.