National Defence Committee on Sept. 30th, 2010

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jean-François Lafleur]

Honourable members of the committee, my name is Jean-François Lafleur. I am the new clerk of the Standing Committee on National Defence.

I see a quorum. We may now proceed to the election of the chair. I am ready to receive motions to that effect.

I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions and cannot entertain points of order nor participate in debate.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party. I'm now ready to receive motions.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I nominate the Honourable Maxime Bernier.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Hawn that Mr. Bernier be the chair. He can be elected in absentia.

Are there any objections to that? I see none.

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Bernier duly elected as chair of the national defence committee.

I am now ready to receive motions for the election of the first vice-chair. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I nominate Mr. Bryon Wilfert.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Easter moves that Mr. Wilfert be the first vice-chair of the committee.

Any objections? I see none.

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Wilfert duly elected as first vice-chair of the committee.

I am now ready to receive motions for the election of the second vice-chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

I am now ready to receive motions.

[Pascal-Pierre Paillé, Bloc, Louis-Hébert, QC]

I nominate Mr. Claude Bachand.

[Claude Bachand, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

I'm the only one who may be able to speak here today, so you'd better vote for me.

[The Clerk]

I see no objections.

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Bachand duly elected second vice-chair.

In the absence of Mr. Bernier, I invite Mr. Bachand to take the chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

Order, please.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Mr. Chairman, today we have a new clerk. I would like a formal introduction.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

Sure. That's a good idea.

[The Clerk]

Thank you very much.

My name is Jean-François Lafleur. I've been with procedural services since 2003. I used to be a legislative clerk, and for three years I was a clerk with the agriculture committee. Just before coming to national defence, I was a legislative clerk. I've been a procedural clerk for seven years now.

[Cheryl Gallant, Conservative, Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, ON]

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

Are you a clerk yourself?

Maybe you could introduce yourself.

[Isabelle Dumas, Procedural Clerk]

I'm Isabelle Dumas. I'm also a procedural clerk. I'm here today to accompany Jean-François for the election of the chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

Wayne, do you want to add something?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Jean-François should be a good clerk because in the agriculture committee we're always at war with each other. I'm sure he can bring peace to the defence committee.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

We've never had war here.

So as not to delay the work of the committee, I suggest that we agree on a list of witnesses for next Tuesday's meeting right away. I suggest that we conduct the meeting with two different panels of witnesses on Tuesday. I am thinking about dividing the witnesses into three panels. Please take note of this, as I will ask you to choose.

On the first panel would be Mr. Bill Matthews from Magellan Aerospace Corporation, Mr. Gilles Labbé from Héroux-Devtek and Mr. Maurice Guitton from Composites Atlantic Limited.

The second panel would consist of the following industry representatives: Mr. Daniel Verreault, GE International Inc.; Mr. Bruce Lennie, Rolls Royce; and Mr. Marc Parent, CAE.

We can group all the company representatives together, and create another panel consisting of former public servants. There would also be three of them: Alan Williams, former Assistant Deputy Minister, Materiel, Department of National Defence; Angus Watt, Lieutenant-General; and Paul Manson, former manager of the CF-18 purchase program.

I don't know whether you'd prefer to have two panels of company representatives or one panel of company representatives and another of former public servants. I would like to know what you think about this.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Just for clarification, who was the third member of the second industry panel? I missed that.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

It was Marc Parent from CAE.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

CAE? Okay. The only thing I would suggest is that if we have General Electric we also have Pratt and Whitney.

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

He was here. As a matter of fact, Pratt and Whitney was here. It was Richard Bertrand.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

I would suggest, and I'm not hung up either way, an industry panel and--

[The Vice-Chair, Bloc, Claude Bachand]

And a civil servant...?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

--then a civil servant panel.