Natural Resources Committee on May 11th, 2006

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Okay. I don't need a motion about that. I just wanted to say it.

In the meantime, we're not sure about witnesses for Tuesday. So what I would like to do on Tuesday, with your concurrence, is to really get into the agenda for the next six weeks and perhaps into the fall.

I've asked the clerk to send a memo as early as today, and certainly you'll get it tomorrow, that will ask you for, first of all, a list of witnesses we might hear in the context of what we heard today, not so much selling their industry or point, or whatever, but providing you and me with background information. We're talking about people like the forest industry, the Energy Dialogue Group, miners and prospectors, NGOs--not to be selling a partisan or particular point of view but really just providing us with information. I'd like to do that for a couple of weeks, as we discussed previously.

I would welcome your thoughts on who we might have appear as witnesses. I see that Mr. Trost has sent one in. He wants to have some witnesses come and give us some background on greenhouse gases, energy, and the economy, concerning mining in Canada. He has suggested the Mining Association and the Prospectors and Developers Association.

I want to get your thoughts. So whoever you want, let's get them in. The clerk will send you a memo. Let's see if we can get those to the clerk by Monday. We'll bring them all to the committee on Tuesday, and rather than have the clerk and me decide, we'll have the whole committee decide.

In addition to that, I think we may as well get into a discussion of perhaps some short-term topics. I don't think we're going to get into the big one before the end of the term, but Mr. Cullen had suggested a couple earlier. We've heard about interest in perhaps discussing softwood for a couple of meetings, getting some information on science and technology and how to fix the energy sector--that came up today. I'm just throwing these out as ideas of where we might constructively use the committee's time to get into a couple of these topics short term, before the June break.

So you'll send out a note, Mr. Clerk.

If you bring everything in, he'll compile what he gets and send it out to you so that you have it before Tuesday's meeting. But it's short notice, so if you don't get it all in, bring it on Tuesday.

Roy.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

The idea on Tuesday, then, is that we go over the plan. But can we also fit in a witness such as the Energy Dialogue Group?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I wanted to, but we can't get them. It's just too short notice. Even as the meeting was going on--I was sorry not to have heard all of the presentations today--we've been trying to line up witnesses for Tuesday. Roy, we're just not able to on this short of notice. I think we're going to have lots of room to discuss.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

What about International Trade on the softwood lumber deal? Can we get them in on Tuesday?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I think this is the conversation we're going to have Tuesday, Roy, about who we're going to have next. I don't think we're going to get any more in on Tuesday with this short notice. Sorry about that.

One final thing is this invitation we got from Azure Dynamics. Again, it's very short notice, but it's regarding the hybrid electric shuttle bus. The environment committee apparently is outside the front door of this building--the Wellington Building--right now waiting to get on this vehicle. The company wants to show you their hybrid electric shuttle bus and take ten minutes to explain what it's about. I leave that to your discretion.

If there's no further business, I will declare the meeting adjourned to the call of the chair.