Evidence of meeting #96 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was aida.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
I repeat: “and that this information be translated into both official languages and deposited with the Clerk of the Committee“ for the purpose of being…
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Did you hear all that?
That's the amendment we're debating right now, before we go on to the other aspects of the motion.
Are there any comments on the amendment proposed by Mr. Lemire?
Mr. Généreux.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
Mr. Chair, we are heading back to our ridings for a week. Given all the staff at the House of Commons, I imagine it will be possible to have the documents translated within a week.
Worst-case scenario, we can agree to Mr. Lemire’s proposal. However, I don’t want to receive these documents in February, after we’ve finished our work. That’s important to mention. We know what happens when you remove a date: it ends up at the bottom of the heap and other documents are dealt with first. That’s the risk. Obviously, we would want the documents to be bilingual.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Are there any further comments?
Are there any more comments on the amendment proposed by Mr. Lemire?
If there are none, I will put it to a vote.
I'm looking around the table to see if anyone wants to jump in.
Mr. Van Bynen, were you raising your hand?
You're on mute.
Liberal
Tony Van Bynen Liberal Newmarket—Aurora, ON
I'm sorry.
I was just concurring. I thought you were calling the vote.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
I'm about to, on the amendment proposed by Mr. Lemire.
Do we need a recorded vote on the amendment by Mr. Lemire, or is there unanimous consent around the table?
(Amendment agreed to)
We're back to the main motion as amended by Mr. Lemire.
Mr. Généreux.
Conservative
Bernard Généreux Conservative Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC
In response to Mr. Turnbull, I have no doubt that the Minister has consulted.
So far, we’ve all invited witnesses, and Lord knows the list is still quite long. Personally, I’d like to know who was consulted about all the witnesses appearing later, so that we can prepare for our future meetings.
So far, among all the high-level experts, if I can call them that, who’ve appeared before us, it seems that no one was consulted. I’d like to know if we’ve missed anyone on the list of those who were consulted. If so, perhaps we should have invited them to appear before the Committee.
I understand that it’s getting late to invite new witnesses. That said, the motion would at least allow us to gather references, find out what recommendations these people made that were not taken up, etc. In the set of documents we’re requesting, we may be able to find answers to these questions.
I repeat, I’m not at all questioning the fact that the Minister consulted 300 organizations or individuals.
November 9th, 2023 / 5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Thanks for the clarification, Mr. Généreux. I appreciate that.
I guess this is what I'm struggling with here. From my perspective, any of the meetings that were had would already be listed on the lobbying registry—that's any time the ministry meets with a group based on this—so there already is documentation of that. You could look it up yourself, if you want.
We also have, obviously, a process for this committee. Many of the groups have already submitted briefs. They have every right and ability to submit a brief to the committee. When I look at this, we're talking about providing “material submitted”. They already have the option of submitting material.
You've been asking all of the witnesses here as to whether they've been consulted. Some of them may not have been, but we know that there are lots of stakeholders out there, and over 300 have been.
I'm not sure what this achieves when, in essence, committee members already have access to the information that's there. As well, stakeholders already have the ability to submit briefs to the committee.
In essence, the information is largely already available. I'm just not sure why we would need a motion at this particular time.
Conservative
Ryan Williams Conservative Bay of Quinte, ON
Thank you.
Just to Mr. Turnbull's point, if the information is there, then we can get it pretty easily. I think this is a pretty simple motion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
Are there any more comments, or should we put this motion to a vote?
Go ahead, Mr. Turnbull.
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
I'm really not sure; when I look at this, it says, “for the sake of transparency, that the minister's office and department release the details pertaining to”. We've already taken out the date, with Mr. Lemire's amendment. The specific date would not be in there. Really, we're asking for the “names of any and all meeting attendees, including the name of representing organizations”, plus “the title of each meeting and any agendas”—
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Yes, well, I'm processing; I don't see how this is absolutely necessary for—
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
You already said that.
He's repeating himself. Let's just go to a vote. He keeps repeating himself.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joël Lightbound
I'm sorry, Mr. Turnbull. Were you done?
Mr. Turnbull has the floor.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
Yes, but he's not supposed to repeat himself. I know how to do a filibuster.
Conservative
Rick Perkins Conservative South Shore—St. Margarets, NS
If you want to do a filibuster, you can't repeat yourself.
Liberal
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
Again, I'm not clear on why; I have concerns about what the intention of this is—
Conservative
Liberal
Ryan Turnbull Liberal Whitby, ON
—and why we need to submit all this documentation when it's already clearly available.