Official Languages Committee on Oct. 27th, 2011

[Sylvia Martin-Laforge]

I think the will is there. I think the implication is that the involvement or the implementation is difficult.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

There's some room for improvement.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Gourde, do you have something to say?

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

Yes. I listened to Mr. Bélanger's question, but I am not sure that I understood the English version. You also referred to another question when I was outside the room.

As concerns the mid-term evaluation, it is not yet available. That is what I can tell you today.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I didn't ask if it was available, I asked whether it would be made public once it is completed. And the answer we were given was no.

[Jacques Gourde, Conservative, Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC]

I am telling you that today, the report is not available.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Mr. Bélanger, you can ask me, as chair of the committee, to ask Canadian Heritage and the parliamentary secretary, in two months, whether this report is completed.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I am not interested in playing games. The question is very clear. When the mid-term evaluation report is completed, will it be made public? I think that is quite clear and simple. That is the question I have asked Mr. Gourde twice now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

The clerk and I are responsible for getting information to committee members. I'll make the commitment that we will inquire in about a month and see whether or not the report is completed. If it is completed, we'll inquire as to whether or not we can get it. I'll make the commitment to you to do that.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Mr. Chairman, the reason it's important that we know whether it's going to be made public is that this will drive how we deal with our own work now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I understand. I'm telling you as your chair, I'm going to inquire in a month. It's clearly not available today, but we will inquire in a month again to see whether or not it's available. It's not complete. You can't provide a report if it's not complete.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

The question is, when it is complete, will it be made public?

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

That's not available. That hasn't been made available. But I'm telling you that we're going to inquire in a month to see whether or not it's complete, and if it's complete, whether or not it's available.

I will let you know what response we get.

Yes, Monsieur Godin.

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

I think that the government should give a clear answer as to whether the report will be made available or not. It doesn't have to be completed, but the government should at least give us an idea of whether it will be made public or not.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I understand that, but in order to maintain order in the committee....

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

Reports are being written that are not even being made public. Reports are being written that do not receive any response from the government. Reports are being written on what was done for one day in the far north and we are not even allowed to share those reports with Canadians. Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent. The government is concerned about taxpayers' money. This committee works hard, but we are not even able to distribute our reports to Canadians. There is a problem here.

There will be a mid-term evaluation report tomorrow. We want to know if it will be made public, yes or no. That's all we want to know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I, as chair of this committee, have an obligation to maintain order, so that's why all requests for information need to go through the chair. I will make my best effort to get that information to you.

If you want to take this up directly with a government member or the parliamentary secretary, you can do it outside of this meeting, but I'm making my best effort, and I've committed, with the clerk, to inquiring in two to three weeks as to whether the report is completed, when it might be completed, and whether or not it's available. We'll let you know what the department says.

We're going to go to Mr. Harris and then Madam Michaud, very quickly because we have bells.

Mr. Harris.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

I have one quick housekeeping matter.

Earlier, in my first opportunity to question, I attributed a remark to Mr. Trottier about a question regarding whether or not things in the road map were working well. I believe it was actually Mr. Weston who said that. I want to clarify.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you for clarifying the record.

Madame Michaud.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

My comment goes to the same point as that made by all my colleagues. I understand that information requests must go through you, but the question that we want you to ask is not: “Is the report completed?” You can wait a few weeks, but we want you to ask if the report will be made available in future. We don't want to know the status of the report in three weeks' time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

I will do that.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

All right, but the way you explained the issue led us to believe that you were not seeking the same information.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

No. I said I would ask two questions, namely, is the report available and will the government distribute it to us?

[Bernard Trottier, Conservative, Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON]

I must attend another committee at 11 o'clock. It is important that we adjourn.

[Élaine Michaud, NDP, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

That's fine.