Evidence of meeting #50 for National Defence in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was c-41.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Colonel  Retired) Michel W. Drapeau (Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa
Ian Holloway  Professor and Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Western Ontario
Jason Gratl  Vice-President, British Columbia Civil Liberties Association
Jean-Marie Dugas  As an Individual
Julie Lalonde-Prudhomme  Procedural Clerk

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

No, we don't have a big problem with the motion. I'm just saying there may be some difficulty with delivering some of these things as you envision them. As those come up, if they come up, then obviously it will have to come back to the committee

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

Well, if somebody wants to come back to the committee and say we don't want to give you X, Y, or Z, then we can debate it, I suppose. But I don't want to qualify our request.

I think we should ask for these documents. If someone says we can't give you this part because there's something in it we don't think should be made public--

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

No, that's fair. Ask for them all.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

--then we can deal with that.

I'm not trying to open up the windows to the world. At the same time, we are a parliamentary committee, and as we know, there are rulings of the House as to what the members of Parliament are entitled to.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier

Okay.

Mr. Wilfert, do you want to add something?

5:30 p.m.

Liberal

Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have three proposals, following consultation and discussions with Mr. Harris. With regard to the list of documents, one would be by Brigadier-General D.A. Davies, director general of the air force department. It's a rotary wing search and rescue study, with a slide presentation, 2009. Second is any other statement of operational requirements on the fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft. And then there is DND's analysis of the NRC report, which I believe is from 2010.

I would add those three as friendly amendments to Mr. Harris's motion.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

Laurie Hawn Conservative Edmonton Centre, AB

We have no problem with asking for the documents. Ask for whatever you want. I'm just giving you a heads-up that in one case there may be some challenge with someone just saying “here it is”. We'll come back with specifics on that. I'm giving you a heads-up on some of the concerns the Chief of the Air Staff has right now.

5:30 p.m.

NDP

Jack Harris NDP St. John's East, NL

If there is a problem with the whole document, that's fine. I take the same position on this issue as I took in the House of Commons on the other issue, which is that if there is something we need to know and it needs to be protected from public information, then we can find ways of dealing with that. I accept that, Laurie.

As far as the motion itself goes, I'll adopt those friendly amendments if it means they are part of the motion now.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier

So do we have consensus to adopt this motion as amended?

5:30 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

5:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Maxime Bernier

Okay, then it's on.

Thank you very much. That concludes our 50th meeting. We will reconvene on Wednesday afternoon.

The meeting is adjourned.