Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 19th, 2020

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I think the suggestion of 1:15...because I think this is an important document and there might be some conversation that we need to have as a committee so that we actually can agree on the letter that goes forward. I think this is too important an issue to not be brought back together to discuss the final product that goes. I would be happy with the 1:15 conversation that we have. That should give us time to make any adjustments.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

In that case, this is what we're looking at. We're going to have a meeting at 3:30 on Monday with the witness or witnesses. At the conclusion of that meeting, this group is collectively going to provide them with drafting instructions. They're going to turn that around sometime Tuesday, and we will meet at 1:15 to review it. Is that right?

Mr. Simard.

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

Since we don't know what provisions of the bill the committee will study, I have difficulty seeing how you will produce a document and who will be invited.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

That's a discussion we have yet to have; you're right. There are five clauses, I believe. If we're agreeable to doing this, we've established the time frame in which to do it. We then need to figure out who the witnesses are going to be. That's the next point.

If you want to chime in on that.... Are you agreeable to the process so far?

[Mario Simard, Bloc, Jonquière, QC]

For the sake of consistency, before I give my opinion on the work we need to do, I would like to know what that work is. Is it possible to do this work in the time we have, which seems very short?

In my opinion, you've got it backwards. Perhaps it would have been better to know which five clauses we'll need to vote on, and then see if we can do it. I put that forward for your consideration.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

We can distribute the clauses right now. There are five clauses that we have to look at.

[Richard Cannings, NDP, South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC]

There are six.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Right, there are six.

Do we have copies for distribution?

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Mr. Chair, if the analysts don't have a copy, I have a copy.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

We just gave it to him.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

Yes. Can we get copies made?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Do you want to suspend for two minutes to get copies made?

[Some hon. members]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

All right.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Everybody now has a copy of the sections we've been asked to review. My interpretation of what's happened so far is that we've agreed to proceed with this, and we have the time frame established, so the question becomes who the witnesses are.

Mr. Lefebvre, you have some views on that.

[Paul Lefebvre, Liberal, Sudbury, ON]

I certainly think we need departmental officials who have dealt with this to come forward to explain the importance of these provisions and what they mean.

First, we should have officials from the Department of Natural Resources and Global Affairs Canada. Between now and tomorrow, we could also suggest that other witnesses be invited.

Then from there, Mr. Chair, I think it's up to you to decide the time frames. We have two hours to look at this.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I was going to address it.

We've established the parameters for how long everybody gets to ask questions. If we have two witnesses and we do one round, we're into 34 minutes, assuming everybody sticks to their allotted time. We have a two-hour meeting. We are going to need time at the end to have some drafting instructions. Are we going to have a two-hour meeting and then do drafting instructions? Keep this in mind with the number of witnesses. We could do three witnesses, I suppose. That's half an hour of evidence, and then we could have one round of questions. It's up to the committee here to decide.

Mr. Lefebvre has suggested some witnesses. Does anybody else have any?

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

I think we could if we can have until the end of the day.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I'll give you to five o'clock. How's that?

[Shannon Stubbs, Conservative, Lakeland, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Ms. McLeod.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

We just received this letter recently and we've just had the paragraphs identified. Have the analysts identified within the agreement any other sections that relate to the natural resource committee, or have you not had the opportunity to intensely review? I'm just surprised at the....

[Bryan May, Liberal, Cambridge, ON]

Mr. Chair—

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I know it's a very technical question.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Are you asking about other sections of the bill? The bill itself was referred to the trade committee and then they referred these particular sections to us.