Evidence of meeting #12 for Official Languages in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was roadmap.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON
As far as Mr. Choquette's motion goes, I am in favour of having Public Services and Procurement Canada representatives appear to discuss the translation bureau. I would prefer that we start with that because I agree we could then wrap up our study on the translation bureau.
But I'm not in favour of inviting Minister Foote to appear right now. Perhaps a better time would be in the fall, once we've submitted our report and received some feedback. Even though deployment of the machine translation tool has been suspended, in the time it takes to review the situation, we should hear from the officials responsible at Public Services and Procurement Canada on the issue. I think we should start by hearing what senior officials have to say on the matter.
So that would be my proposed amendment to the motion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
Do you have a date in mind as to when the senior officials should appear?
Liberal
Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON
We could hear from Mr. Scott Brison for the first hour and the senior officials for the second.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Mr. Chair, a suggestion was just made.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
Mr. Chair, he suggested a date.
Liberal
Paul Lefebvre Liberal Sudbury, ON
Mr. Chair, my suggestion is this: that we hear from Mr. Brison for the first hour and the senior officials for the second. We would have another meeting with them.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
On May 30, then, we would hear from Mr. Brison for the first hour and the senior officials for the second.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Mr. Chair, a small clarification. During the first hour, we would hear from Mr. Brison, and during the second, we would hear from senior officials from Public Services and Procurement Canada. It would be helpful to have the senior officials from the Treasury Board stay for the second hour in case we have follow-up questions for them.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
No problem.
I'm being told that the Treasury Board officials wanted to appear before the committee on June 1, but we won't be here that day.
So the Treasury Board officials could come at the same time as Mr. Brison, and we would ask them to stay for the second hour, along with the officials accompanying Ms. Foote. That's what you're proposing.
Actually, Mr. Brison and his officials are expected to appear in the Senate on May 30, at 5 o'clock, so he can't stay. As for the officials, we will let them go at 5 o'clock.
Does that work for you before we move on to the next motion?
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
Mr. Chair, before we get into the next motion, I have something to add. As I mentioned, my fellow committee members wanted to have the time to read question Q-53 on the Order Paper before including it in the committee's study. I'd like it to be included in the committee's study, given that part of the question pertains to the translation bureau.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Côte-de-Beaupré—Île dOrléans—Charlevoix, QC
What is question Q-53?
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
I brought it up about three weeks ago. I had asked the clerk to send it out to all the committee members. Everyone said they would read it so we could make a decision on it today.
Liberal
Chloé Forget Committee Researcher
Question Q-53 contains a lot of information. Do you want it to be included in the report that will be tabled by the end of the session? I am not sure what kind of an analysis you had in mind.
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
I think that the most relevant part of question Q-53 is the one that pertains to Public Services and Procurement Canada. So we would keep three or four pages of the hundreds of pages of question Q-53. To help the analysts, I could make an amendment to include the part of the answer that has to do with Public Services and Procurement Canada.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
So the main motion was amended by Paul Lefebvre, and then amended again by you concerning question Q-53. Did I get that right?
NDP
François Choquette NDP Drummond, QC
We can discuss the amendments to the motion as a whole or individually; it's all the same to me. I don't see any issue with us discussing the amendments as a whole.
(Motion agreed to)
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Denis Paradis
The following motion moved by Ms. Lapointe concerns orders of reference.
We are listening, Ms. Lapointe.
