Mr. Bezan, please go ahead.
Evidence of meeting #14 for National Defence in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was victims.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #14 for National Defence in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was victims.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
I think it'll take us a few days to make the amendments that we want to make and have them properly drafted after we hear from the last panel on the 2nd. The 4th is when we have the minister.
I think that will be pushing it for legislative services to provide us with those amendments in that short a period. I think the 7th is the proper date for us to dig in and start doing clause-by-clause.
If we need to add meetings, would it be after the 6th or the 7th, or the following week?
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
So if we need to add meetings, it would be the week of the 9th.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
That's sort of the last week of our sitting, too. I'm very sensitive about the activities that will be taking place throughout that week.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Just don't hold meetings when there are Christmas parties.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke, ON
Mr. Chairman, would the clerk be able to put what we just discussed onto a calendar, as she has done before, so that we can have that with us?
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke, ON
We're on the last week of November and then the balance of December.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
Yes. Right now we have November 25 and 27 and then December 2.
There is the opportunity for me to add another session the week of November 24. That week is possible.
Monsieur Savard-Tremblay, please go ahead.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC
Mr. Chair, we all have busy schedules. If it's a matter of adding more meetings, it should be done in concert with everyone so that the date isn't arbitrary.
While we're looking at all that, can a proposal be submitted?
There's very little time left. In fact, the committee meeting was supposed to end half an hour ago. I have an appointment in my office in 10 minutes, so I'd like someone to tell me if we're going to drag this out.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
[Technical difficulty—Editor] the meeting for the interpreters for another 10 minutes.
I propose that we add an additional day next week to try to accommodate, but it's also dependent on our availability and the availability of the witnesses.
Bloc
Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay Bloc Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot—Acton, QC
It might take a while to do it now. Can the proposal be submitted to us at another time?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
I will inform everyone prior. You have to give ample notice. Right now we have meetings on November 25 and 27. If I can incorporate a meeting on November 24 and 26, I'll let you know beforehand. I just want to be sensitive about us trying to do our job before the year's end.
Ms. Romanado, please go ahead.
Liberal
Sherry Romanado Liberal Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC
If it's difficult to add an additional meeting—I know it's not easy—perhaps we can add an hour after each of the meetings next week to have additional witnesses. The meeting of Tuesday would be a three-hour meeting. The meeting of Thursday would be a three-hour meeting. We can get more witnesses in and get them done. That way, we're not adding an additional meeting somewhere in the week, which is always hard to do.
I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. That might be easier, because we've already committed that time for committee meetings.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
I was considering those alternatives as well. We could extend our meetings, as we are doing right now.
Mr. Bezan, please go ahead.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
If you're going that route, then, being sensitive to panels, I believe we get more out of our panels when we have longer times with them. Don't break it into one-hour blocks. If we're going to go for a three-hour meeting, it's an hour and a half then an hour and a half.
Conservative
James Bezan Conservative Selkirk—Interlake—Eastman, MB
Don't load up the panels with too many witnesses because then you spend all the time with statements. I think four is the max.
Committee Researcher
The witnesses are booked for next week for Tuesday, Thursday and on December 2. Is the request then, if we add more meetings next week, that we try to shuffle the witnesses into two panels instead of three?
We have Deschamps' and Fish's availability and I'm not sure that they will be available next week.
Liberal
Sherry Romanado Liberal Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC
If it's possible to check with them to see if they have any availability next week with those extra times, that would be great. If not, we'll try to see what we can do.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Charles Sousa
If they could be available that week, then we can deal with clause-by-clause on December 2. That's my intent or the will of the committee, I think.
Go ahead, Ms. Gallant.
Conservative
Cheryl Gallant Conservative Algonquin—Renfrew—Pembroke, ON
There is a motion that I had given notice on. The reason I'm raising this is that we will have the minister before us on the budget perhaps later in December. It's important to have the Parliamentary Budget Officer ahead of the minister when he comes before us on the budget, just so that we're better set to deal with that.
I'd like to move the following motion:
That the committee invite the Parliamentary Budget Officer to appear for no less than two hours to discuss their new report, entitled “Planned Capital Spending under Canada’s Defence Policy: 2025 Update”.