Official Languages Committee on June 1st, 2006

[Some hon. members]

No, no!

[Vivian Barbot, Bloc, Papineau, QC]

That is true, we are not withdrawing it.

[Luc Harvey, Conservative, Louis-Hébert, QC]

Second my motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Agreed?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Now let's talk about the revised work plan. Does everyone have a copy?

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

It is not completed yet.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Have we scheduled a witness for June 6? On June 6, we will be hearing from Ms. Adam, on June 8, Minister Josée Verner, and on June 13, the Honourable Lawrence Cannon. Have you spoken to Minister Cannon?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Mark D'Amore]

Not yet, but I have sent on the information.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

We hope to have Minister Cannon here on the 13th.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I will raise the matter with Mr. Cannon this afternoon.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

Okay. On June 15, we are scheduled to study--

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I do not understand.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

If we do a report--

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

We want to finish the report before...

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

We are going to consider it on June 15. On June 20, we will do the same thing. On June 22, we will hear from Mr. Lafrance, who is confirmed. We have a rather busy agenda.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I must say that we should get in the habit of meeting with just one person or one group, instead of two or three. When Service Canada appeared earlier, we were not all able to ask questions, much to my disappointment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

As the clerk has said, we can invite them back if we want.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I would like them to come back, because I wanted further clarification from them. I got some answers about translation, but there were other things that I would have liked to clarify with the people from Service Canada. Unfortunately, we ran out of time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

We never know what will happen. With the second group of witnesses, it wrapped up quite quickly.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Yes, I know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Guy Lauzon]

We never know how things will work out.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

When we are faced with situations as absurd as the ones that just occurred... We were all a bit surprised, and even shaken. Personally, I do not know if other committee members will support me, but I would like them to come back to give us additional information.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I would like to make a suggestion. When we bring in two witnesses on the same topic and divide up the time as we just did, I think we are making a mistake. At other committees, witnesses are all at the table at the same time; they make their presentations and we put questions to whomever we want.

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

Precisely.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

They spend two hours with all of the witnesses.