Evidence of meeting #105 for Natural Resources in the 44th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workforce.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Okay. We have an amendment on the floor, and I just want to make sure that it was captured. I think it was to remove “within 15 days” and replace that with “as soon as reasonably possible”.
I'm going to go to Mr. Patzer.
Go ahead.
Conservative
Jeremy Patzer Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Do you know what? These ministers have had literally all summer to get ready, hopefully, for whatever their strategic plans and visions are for their respective ministries. As we know, there's a lot of crossover between environment and natural resources, so that's why it's important to have those two ministers come. The motion's pretty clear about their priorities for the return of Parliament and their mandates. If we remove the 15-day piece, it could be next calendar year when they show up, because that could be “as soon as reasonably possible”. It would be nice to have a pretty crystal-clear timeline in here.
Of course, when we say 15 days and they come in 17 days, I don't think that we have to be like, “Oh well, they'll have to change it because of that.” To me, if we say 15 days but they're over by two days, I'm pretty sure no one's going to be upset that we're two days over the timeline, but if we eliminate the days, then I think that just leads to “Oh, this came up. Oh, this came up. Oh, this came up,” and then they don't ever appear. We just don't want that to happen, so I think we can leave the days in there, knowing that if it takes, as I said, 17 days for the minister to come, we're not going to be upset that it was over by a couple of days, right? There's a little bit of latitude there, but I think we need to stay to a prescriptive timeline to make sure that happens and that it gets scheduled into the committee calendar. That way, it's very clear when they're coming and what they're doing. As I said, they've had all summer to get their ducks in a row in terms of what their priorities should be, so it's time for us to hear from them.
Liberal
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Well, it is normal for a committee not to set a prescriptive timeline for the ministers because of the many other issues that they have to deal with, and that has been kind of a standard I've seen over the years, so I recognize Ms. Dabrusin's offer.
I do think that they should come as soon as possible, so I'm looking at it from two lenses. One is that the longer the TMX study hangs over this government, the more it's going to hurt, so if I were them, I'd get it over with as quickly as possible. However, if they want to drag it out, I'll drag it out forever.
I'm offering some political advice to my colleagues: Rip off that band-aid as quickly as you can. I would suggest that we turn it to the clerk to see what their availability is, and if we get blown off, I would bring back a motion calling them and insisting. I'm willing to do this in good faith and with the amendment, but I would like to get this dealt with.
I know this is not on the amendment, but I do want to ask this: On our witness list, we have Ms. Freeland. Is she still on our witness list?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
I can go to the clerk, I believe, so....
Mr. Angus, we have invited them, and we're just waiting on a confirmation of when they might be able to attend.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Okay. I'm wondering whether I need to amend the motion or work on trust that Ms. Freeland has been made aware so that she will come.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
We can get follow-up maybe by Wednesday and advise the committee accordingly.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
I'm fine with that. If not, then I'll bring a separate motion, but she's on our witness list.
I think having the three ministers would be very helpful and it would answer the questions we have.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Thank you, Mr. Angus.
On the amendment, we have “as soon as possible”. That is the amendment. I heard from colleagues. You've presented your debate on that.
I don't see any other hands on the amendment, so we can put the amendment to a vote.
Ms. Dabrusin, go ahead.
Liberal
Julie Dabrusin Liberal Toronto—Danforth, ON
I just wanted to be clear. I said “as soon as reasonably possible”. I know you had that in there, but I just wanted to be clear that it's what I had proposed. I think that's what the clerk is having us vote on.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Let's go to the vote on the amendment, folks.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)
The amendment has passed. Now we're back to the main motion as amended.
I will go to Mr. Angus.
You are next on the speakers list on the main motion.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
I was going to put an amendment for Ms. Freeland, but I'll wait and make sure she is listed to come. I'll just vote on the motion as it stands now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Okay.
I know there were some other hands previously on the main motion.
Ms. Jones, I had you on, but do you still want to—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
You're good? Okay.
I don't see any other hands, so now we'll go to the vote on the motion as amended that we have on the floor.
Mr. Clerk, can you call the roll, please?
Conservative
Shannon Stubbs Conservative Lakeland, AB
Chair and Clerk, perhaps you could read it out again, just so we're all clear.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Sure.
We'll just read it out again so everybody's clear on what the amended motion is.
The clerk will provide a readout of the amended motion, and then we'll go to a vote if there are no other questions.
Let's go to the readout.
Go ahead.
The Clerk
It would read:
That the committee invite the Minister of Natural Resources and the Minister of Environment and Climate Change to appear before the committee, separately, for no less than two hours each, as soon as reasonably possible, in relation to their priorities for the return of Parliament and their mandates.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal George Chahal
Please call the roll.
(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)
That motion passes.
Thank you, colleagues.
Colleagues, before we conclude today, we do have two supplementary budgets. I want to deal with this issue really quickly.
Is it the will of the committee that the proposed supplementary budget in the amount of $3,500 for the study of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the proposed supplementary budget in the amount of $2,000 for the study of Canada's electricity grid and network be adopted?