Justice Committee on Feb. 25th, 2021

[Jerry Dias]

Of course we have members who are compulsive gamblers; our members would be a reflection of the Canadian society as a whole. You'll find, however, that our members who work in the gaming sector are not allowed to participate. I'm not allowed to go, for example, into a Unifor gaming facility, just based on regulations. Our members, frankly, are not allowed to participate.

I'm not sure what their rates are for gaming members. Do we have members with addictions who work in various sectors? The answer is absolutely yes.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Dias.

I understand that your members are not allowed to gamble in the casinos where they work, but, to your knowledge, do they gamble in other casinos, on the Internet or abroad?

Do you know whether there are any problems of that nature?

[Jerry Dias]

There are not, to my knowledge.

We have a very active gaming council in which we have local union leadership from across the country participating. Among the numerous challenges that we are dealing with and that they speak of within our sector, we haven't talked about having discussions about our own members with these types of workplace addictions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much.

Monsieur Fortin, you had 20 seconds extra that time.

I will go to Mr. Masse now for two and a half minutes.

Go ahead, sir.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair. Hopefully I won't lose Mr. Dias this time.

With regard to building back from COVID, Kevin Laforet for Casino Windsor, and I'm sure it's across the other sectors as well—you mentioned Dana Dunphy and her crew there, and others.... If this is passed, even with restrictions, they've indicated that they can increase employment right now to prepare for it.

[Jerry Dias]

Absolutely.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

They're ready to go; they're eager.

Can you express a bit the frustration for some workers right now, the pride they take and their not being able to work at all?

[Jerry Dias]

First of all, having a restriction of 50 people.... I understand the preoccupation with safety, and that has to be everyone's preoccupation today; but this can't be a situation in which one solution fits all. You can't have a casino the size of Casino Windsor being restricted to 50 people and have a casino a fraction of its size being restricted to 50 people. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

There is no question that if in fact the single-sports betting is allowed, there will be infrastructure spending, jobs created preparing the casino for a new form of betting, and obviously it will create more jobs for the implementation of the strategy.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you.

Let me move quickly over to Mr. Burns.

I was in Niagara Falls and heard the same thing. They're looking at doing millions of dollars of expansions right now and using this as an opportunity—if we can get this done quickly through here and the Senate—with the numbers down, to invest and prepare.

Is that what you're hearing?

[Paul Burns]

It very much is. They would be able to move very swiftly to create an environment. They've identified the parts of the building they would like to renovate and then move to get the product available as soon as possible.

Bringing people back into gaming facilities is a priority, and having a new product and a new offering is what is really giving them some optimism at this point in time. Niagara Falls has not reopened at all since last March.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

I assume that it's going to be the same thing across Vancouver and other places like that. They'll all look at their operations now and at what they can do and use this to their advantage, because there's no getting back time.

[Paul Burns]

That's correct. We've been talking with provincial gaming organizations, the lottery and gaming corporations across the country. We want to see land-based gaming operators have the opportunity to offer sports booksas quickly as possible and to find the right products to put in place. Those discussions are happening.

Really, across the country, everybody is quite eager. You heard from Mr. Hansen earlier. Also, the Alberta gaming and liquor commission and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation all have been publicly saying that we need to see this passed soon.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Masse, that was an extra 20 seconds for you as well.

With that, I'd like to thank our witnesses for your testimony today. We really appreciate your time.

Just before members go, I see that Mr. Cooper has his hand raised.

Go ahead, sir.

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just wanted to seek clarification in terms of a deadline for the submission of briefs.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

That's exactly what I was going to talk about just now before we adjourn today.

There are two major deadlines.

The deadline for written submissions, Mr. Cooper, for all members, is March 11 at 4 p.m. That is taking into account the translation time and also giving enough time between that deadline and the deadline for submitting amendments as well. March 11 at 4 p.m. will be the deadline for written submissions for Bill C-218.

Also, then, the second deadline—I know we talked about it at our last meeting, but I'll just remind members—is March 23 at 4 p.m. That will be the deadline for members for amendments to Bill C-218.

If any of you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me or to the clerk. As you know, the legislative clerk is at your service to help you draft amendments, should you so need that. Just reach out. We'll be happy to provide you with that support.

Then we will get right into our next meeting, which will be another meeting on Bill C-218, with more witnesses.

Are there more questions from members at this time on what's happening in the next couple of weeks? No?

Does that answer your question, Mr. Cooper?

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

Yes, very well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Go ahead, Monsieur Fortin.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Madam Chair, I want to begin by thanking you for giving the witnesses more time to answer questions. I appreciate that, given the delays related to interpretation.

Three motions have been proposed to the clerk's office concerning various issues related to the committee's management. I would like us to discuss them, but I don't want to prevent things from being carried out properly. Do you have a suggestion? I believe that you have seen the motions. They were proposed a week or two ago.

Could we do this now or when we come back from the parliamentary break?

What do you suggest?

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

I'll leave it to the members to decide if they want to discuss Monsieur Fortin's motions. I believe the motions are in order. We've received enough notice for them to discuss them.

If we want to have a substantive discussion, Monsieur Fortin, then I suggest we do it at the next meeting, but if you'd like to quickly talk about them, we can do it now.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

Okay.

I don't really have any arguments to add. I think the motions speak for themselves. It's very simple. If you want us to do this right away, we can, if the members have the motions in question before them.

One of the motions concerns the linguistic review of documents, another one is about technical tests—

[Michael Cooper, Conservative, St. Albert—Edmonton, AB]

I'm sorry to interrupt Monsieur Fortin, but I am not getting any translation

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard]

It should be working right now. Please keep going.

[Rhéal Fortin, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I'm always happy when I see one of my anglophone colleagues experiencing technical difficulties related to interpretation, as I feel less alone. We are all going through this, and it's not because the interpreters are not doing a good job. On the contrary, they are doing an exceptional job.

Madam Chair, I was simply saying that the motions speak for themselves. They are very simple and short. The first one's objective is for documents to be submitted in both official languages. The second one calls for technical tests to be carried out before witnesses appear. Finally, the third motion concerns the linguistic review of documents.

To my knowledge, no one on the committee is opposed to these motions, but since this is an issue on certain committees, the moving of these motions has been suggested to all committees.

I am moving them, but I have no arguments to add.

[The Chair, Liberal, Iqra Khalid]

Thank you, Monsieur Fortin.

Before we engage in this conversation, I'd like to let our witnesses go so they don't have to stay for this part.

Thank you very much for being here today. Thank you for your testimony. If there's anything you would like to provide further clarification on, please don't hesitate to submit written clarifications or additions to your testimony today. We'd appreciate that.

Thank you. Now we'll go back to Monsieur Fortin. I'll turn to Mr. Clerk to explain these three motions and go from there.

Mr. Clerk.

[The Clerk]

You are taking me a bit by surprise. I should open the text of those motions on my computer again, but I think I sort of remember the three motions.