International Trade Committee on Nov. 30th, 2020

[Mary Ng, Liberal, Markham—Thornhill, ON]

Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Thank you to the officials who are here. Thank you, colleagues for giving me this time today. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

How fast everybody disappears.

All right.

A couple of things. On the issue of the Canada-U.K. report, we need to establish a deadline for submission of briefs for the study of Canada-U.K. trade relations, so that the analysts will be able to insert whatever briefs are necessary that would go into the full report that we're talking about getting in 2021. We would receive this after we come back from the break.

The clerk and analyst have suggested that they would need any submissions of briefs by December 18, 2020, in order for this to be submitted, translated and ready for us when we return at the end of January.

Is everyone okay with that deadline of December 18?

I'm assuming so. Nobody is yelling at me.

Yes, Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

It's hard to have deadlines when I don't know what the Minister's schedule is. Until we really see what's coming into the House and when, to put a fixed deadline on this becomes really tough. I understand the clerks' problem here. I want to work with them, but in the same breath, the problem was created by this minister and this government by not having this done sooner and by not having a firm game plan in place, even at this point in time, on when things would be proceeding.

What type of flexibility do we have here?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I think we could hold off on making that decision. Let's say that we get through another Friday and Monday and put that off for another week? We'll revisit that timeline next Monday and see what has happened between now and then point and if anything has changed. We will put the date off until this time next Monday as far as the final date for any extra briefs goes. Is that all right with everybody?

I have a budget that I need approval for in the amount of $2,900. I believe it has been circulated to all committee members. It needs to be adopted by the committee to pay for headsets and phone lines. There is a bit in there, apparently, for meals. Any unspent funds from that $2,900, of course, will returned to our Liaison Committee.

Is everyone in agreement with that budget?

(Motion agreed to)

Thank you very much.

There is one other thing. On December 4 our committee will begin its study on the COVID-19 recovery plan, and we will review and adopt the draft interim report at that same meeting. The interim draft report will be sent to all members by December 2 for review on December 4. For the information of the committee, on December 7 we will resume our study again on the COVID-19 recovery plan.

Is that okay with everybody?

Mr. Hoback, that was an issue you were interested in. Are you okay with that?

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Yes. I think that's fine for now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Everybody is okay with that. All right.

One other thing, since we have a few minutes here, is that there apparently is going to be required a shutdown for critical maintenance. The whips have been informed that the special order allowing for hybrid sittings of the House and its committees expires on December 11. The infrastructure required to support committee meetings and other events will undergo critical maintenance from December 19 to January 17. This, apparently, has been planned for months, and fits for this time during an extended adjournment to reduce the impacts on normal parliamentary activities.

Right now the administration will be unable to support any events that require multimedia support, including committee meetings, between December 19 to January 17. It's here for the information of committees.

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I guess what has being arranged, then, in regard to the committee meeting in person so that we have proper social distancing and proper things in effect.... Do we have a room big enough to handle all of us? Can we use the House of Commons, because, obviously, we're not going to have this here by December 11. If the minister says we have to get this done by December 31, and does not have a plan B, then what is our plan B? What do we have for facilities that we can utilize to do our job?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Apparently, that's all being looked into. There will be the adequate rules.

Madam Clerk, would you like to offer a comment on the knowledge that you have.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Christine Lafrance]

The rooms are already arranged for in-person meetings for 12 members.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Okay, so they are working at it and trying to make sure we have everything necessary to be able to keep Parliament functioning and our committees functioning.

Is there any further comment?

Mr. Blaikie.

Mr. Blaikie, you're on mute.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

I'm sorry about that, guys. That's my first really bad “not unmuting” incident, so apologies.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It's quite an exercise getting to mute and unmute all the time.

[Daniel Blaikie, NDP, Elmwood—Transcona, MB]

It's trying to do too many things at once.

I was going to say that even Mr. Hoback's question, I think, presumes that some kind of enabling legislation will have passed second reading in the House of Commons by December 11. Even that seems unlikely to me. Then if we can't resume....

Maybe to the government members of the committee, and particularly our parliamentary secretary, it would be really nice to get something approaching the outline of a plan for how the House is supposed to deal with this. I don't expect that today, obviously. We just had the minister, and there is not yet the outline of something that looks something like a plan, but sooner is better, it seems to me. I don't know how the government's going to meet this deadline.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Ms. Bendayan.

[Rachel Bendayan, Liberal, Outremont, QC]

I think somebody else wanted to intervene. I'm not sure if it was Mary or somebody else.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mr. Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

I have two things. One is that I want to congratulate the minister for appearing for two hours, or an hour and 45 minutes. In my time there have been few ministers who have done that. I'm not going to grade her on her performance, but I will say that I give her 100% credit for appearing for that amount of time, and I would encourage other ministers to do the same going forward because I think it's a good thing to do.

The second thing is that I hope that the government will not propose to Parliament and this committee that it be approved at all stages at once with a unanimous consent type of thing. I feel that's the way we're going on this, but I sure hope they don't, and if they do, I hope there's something they can do before that.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Mrs. Gray.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanted clarification on the maintenance schedule from December 19, 2020, to January 17, 2021. Does that mean our committee could sit up until December 18 then, if we did have to deal with legislation that came forth towards the end of that week, like December 10 or December 11? Could this committee be sitting after that point sometime between the 13th and the 18th of December? Could that potentially play out?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Madam Clerk.

[The Clerk]

The motion that was adopted on September 23 says that the committee can meet until December 11 in a hybrid format. As for what would go on after that, my guess, and I would have to check with my management, is that we could have in-person meetings here in Ottawa.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you for that clarification.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We'll see if we can get some more information on this for our next meeting so that everyone is clear on where we're going with this.

[Ziad Aboultaif, Conservative, Edmonton Manning, AB]

Madam Chair, I have a quick question. With regard to what we just heard—that there are no meetings between December 19 and January 17—who decides on that? Is it the House or us as a committee?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

That was decided by the House.

Madam Clerk, would you like to answer that?