Evidence of meeting #1 for International Trade in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was first.
4:15 p.m.
The Clerk
I'm going to check on whether he is available. If he is available, obviously, I think he will accept the invitation; if not, he will be replaced by a senior official.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
Okay. It's an invitation, rather than a demand for him to appear.
4:15 p.m.
The Clerk
I would say so.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Mr. Menzies, we've found in the past, of course, that sometimes ministers come on short notice, although rarely, if ever, would it be as short as we're asking here. We've also had times when we couldn't get the minister to come for a couple of months, and that's obviously unacceptable.
I think that as a committee we should encourage the minister to come as soon as he possibly can. We would like him to come next week. We will ask him whether he can attend next week and then take it from there, as agreed. Is that all right?
4:15 p.m.
A voice
Agreed.
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you very much. It's agreed.
Is there any more business for the committee?
The next meeting of the committee will be on Monday at this time. You will get notice about the location. The time is the same time on Monday.
Seeing no other business....
Mr. Menzies.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I have one other point of business, and I think Mr. Paquette, Mr. Julian, and Mr. Eyking will back me up on this.
When we bring in witnesses, I would personally like to see small biographies on these individuals, and some of their previous works, previous writings, and comments, further ahead of the meeting. In the last session we were given briefings and articles that these people had written to get an idea of where their thoughts would be coming from so that we could frame some questions in our minds, but we were given them just as we were going into the meetings.
I would certainly like to have the opportunity to read those as soon as we can, whether they're sent electronically to our offices or not. I don't know what the timeframe is. I know you're busy, but that would help us to get the answers and the information out of these witnesses.
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Mr. Menzies, I will assure you that as chair of the committee I will be asking the clerk and the researchers to do exactly that. The committee is only going to be a better committee if the background information is received as far ahead of time as possible. On occasion that just won't be possible--
4:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
--but I really will push for that, and I appreciate you bringing that up.
Is there any more business?
Thank you very much. The meeting is adjourned.