Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 1st, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I call the meeting to order.

Thank you, everybody, for joining us today. We are on meeting number 10 of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources. I'm glad everybody could make it. It's our first meeting back since Parliament resumed sitting last month; it's February 1 today.

We are proceeding on Zoom, as everybody knows, with the exception of Mr. McLean, our analysts and our clerk, who are in the room there today. We need to be patient with everybody in terms of how the process works electronically. I know everybody is good at it now, so thank you for that.

We are going to start with our three groups of witnesses. Each witness will be given up to—

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Yes.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, I submitted a notice of motion on—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I can't hear you, Greg.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Is there something wrong with the microphones in the room?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I can hear you faintly, but not clearly.

[An hon. member]

We can hear you clearly on Zoom.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Try again.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Test, test, test.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

There, now I can hear you.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, I submitted a notice of motion to the committee last week—

[An hon. member]

We lost him again.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Okay. Technicians are looking at it here.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

The volume gets soft, that's all.

Why don't I go ahead with what I was saying.

You can hear us okay, can't you?

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Yes, I can.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

I was explaining to our witnesses the process for today.

First of all, thank you for joining us today. This is our 10th meeting on this study, and your evidence is going to be helpful to us as we approach the end of this topic. We're grateful for your taking the time to be here.

The process is this: Each group of witnesses, whether you're individual or two, as in the case of Unifor, will be given up to five minutes to make an initial presentation, following which, after all three of you have presented, we'll open the floor to questions from around the table.

You are welcome and encouraged to speak in either official language. Translation services are available to everybody. At the bottom of your screen, if you haven't already done it, you can designate your preferred language for audio purposes. There shouldn't be a problem, and if there is, please feel free to let us know.

Why don't we start at the top. I'll start with Vice-Chancellor Lahey—

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, is this working yet?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Yes, now I can hear you.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

I submitted a notice of motion last week about—

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

No, it's gone quiet again. It's fine when you start, and then it sort of fades away.

[Greg McLean, Conservative, Calgary Centre, AB]

Maybe I have to just really focus on putting my mouth close to the microphone.

Does that work there?

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

No, it's still not working.

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

It's working fine for me. I can hear it great.

[The Chair, Liberal, James Maloney]

Am I the only one having a problem?