Evidence of meeting #60 for National Defence in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
I appreciate that. Just a comment: any travel by the committee has to go through this rigorous process of getting the budget, getting the Liaison Committee on side, and all the structure that goes with that.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Travel was just an aside. The main point is to have our researchers map out a course of study so we're not starting from ground zero in September.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
Unless I'm mistaken, I don't believe the motion that was brought forward to do continental defence or look at NORAD was accepted.
The Clerk
The committee agreed to it as a priority, but the specific motion was not dealt with; it was sent back to....
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
So the specific motion of what the study would entail was not.... Continental defence and NORAD are the next subjects that we all agreed to study, but the parameters of it were not fleshed out. We're going to have to do that. In order to do this, we're going to have to have a steering committee meeting to get all this sorted out. The chair will be calling one of those.
Ms. Black.
NDP
Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC
Just to support what Cheryl is saying, I don't think anything prevents having a tentative, loose kind of work plan established. I think what you were going to say next is that you have to come back to the steering committee. Well, that would give the steering committee something to look at. I think that's a good idea.
NDP
Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC
No, I understand that. It could be a suggestion in there, understanding that we need to go through this other process before we're allowed to—
Conservative
Liberal
Denis Coderre Liberal Bourassa, QC
That is what I meant.
We should have a steering committee. I just remind you that after discussing procurement, we said also that we wanted to have the minister, whoever it will be. We don't know what will happen this summer—but we should have a meeting again on the Afghan detainees. We said that the future/former minister or the actual/actual Minister of Defence should be here with the CDS.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
Okay. I appreciate that.
Are there any comments?
Ms. Gallant, and then Mr. Hiebert.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
Mr. Chairman, the suggestion to have our researchers get to work on this during the summer does not preclude having the Minister of Defence for the agreed upon meeting.
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
I wasn't going to plan anything for next week, because my personal opinion is that we're not going to be here. That's personal—believe me, I do not know anything. I think the opposition probably knows more about the timing of all this than we do, because they have some control over that.
Just to wrap up, committee—
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON
We didn't say whether or not we were going to direct our researchers to map out a plan.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Casson
I think there was agreement, consensus, on that.
The motion to travel to Afghanistan kicks in a whole lot of work that needs to be done. The clerk and I will start working on that as best we can. Of course, Foreign Affairs and DND become involved when a committee travels overseas. All of that has to happen, but it has been agreed by this committee that we do travel. We'll look forward to getting that approved and getting that going.
NDP
Dawn Black NDP New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC
Can we keep in mind my suggestion that we not only go to KAF, but have an opportunity to go to Kabul as well?
