Natural Resources Committee on Sept. 26th, 2006

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Further to that, Mr. Chairman, I wonder if this might be an idea. If we are having the minister come, and we accept the template that has been suggested by Mr. Ouellet, perhaps we could canvass members as to where they would like to see the minister address items of concern--policy development, whatever. Then the chair and the vice-chairs could try to present that in a focused letter, if you will, to give the minister an idea of what the committee's concerned about and where the committee sees itself going. Perhaps that would help the minister to energize the committee with its agenda.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Yes. This may just rule it out in that way, in any event.

I spoke a moment ago of the estimates. If it is the wish of the committee to review the estimates--and I suspect it is--they have to be reviewed by November 10 or it will be deemed that we didn't want to review them. So that date is pretty close, and maybe we'll just mould these things together.

With other things on the agenda, I doubt that we're going to get to the minister much before then anyway. That's about six weeks from now. So maybe we'll just incorporate these notions, and you start thinking about things you want. That's a very good way to do it because you can pick spots, and when you go to that part of the estimates you can ask questions.

The minister would probably be delighted to have advance notice of your questions, but I don't think it's necessary.

I think we'll move that way. We don't have to leave it to the last minute before November 10 either. Maybe we should think about scheduling an early meeting with the minister to review the estimates, if that's possible. In the short term, I'll ask the parliamentary secretary to come up with some dates for when the minister might appear. There is a pretty clear consensus in the committee that an hour is not enough time, and we would appreciate it if he could find the time in his schedule to give us at least ninety minutes, if not two hours.

I'm going to leave it to the committee until Thursday. I want you to think about what we're going to talk about. We'll go through this summary and other issues.

We should also have a quick visit on the issue of Fort McMurray and when we can go. A couple of days during the break week would be good. We could maybe fly to Calgary on Sunday night, spend Monday in Calgary, go up to Fort McMurray Tuesday morning, and come back here or to your ridings on Tuesday night. That would be the most convenient, but if members don't agree we'll have to pursue another way.

Ms. Bell.

[Catherine Bell, NDP, Vancouver Island North, BC]

So it's the November break week you're thinking of, because the holiday is on a Saturday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Yes. It's short notice now.

[Catherine Bell, NDP, Vancouver Island North, BC]

Otherwise it's Thanksgiving Monday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We could do it in the middle of the week. I'm just trying to minimize the weekday time out of your ridings, but it's whatever the committee agrees on. Rather than discuss it now, let's give it some thought, and maybe I'll come up with some possibilities that we can debate on Thursday.

Does anybody have anything they want to discuss or give notice of before Thursday? Great.

Welcome back, and thank you. I look forward to a productive session.

The meeting is adjourned.