Evidence of meeting #39 for Official Languages in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was federal.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jean Poirier  Former Member of Provincial Parliament and Former President, Assemblée de la francophonie de l'Ontario, As an Individual
Lynn Brouillette  President and Chief Executive Officer, Association des collèges et universités de la francophonie canadienne
Luc Bussières  Rector, Hearst University
Linda Cardinal  Emeritus Professor, University of Ottawa, As an Individual
Daniel Giroux  President, Collège Boréal
François Hastir  Chartered Administrator and Executive Director, Regroupement étudiant franco-ontarien

5:25 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Emmanuel Dubourg

Thank you very much.

That's all the time we have.

We have just finished the final round with that response from Mr. Hastir. He said he was going to submit a brief to us as well, so I want to thank him for that. I invite the other witnesses to do the same, if they wish.

On behalf of the committee members, I thank all the witnesses for their participation and contribution to this study.

I remind you that we heard Linda Cardinal, emeritus professor at University of Ottawa, who testified as an individual. We also heard Daniel Giroux, president of Collège Boréal, and François Hastir, certified administrator and executive director of the Regroupement étudiant franco-ontarien.

We're taking the time to bid farewell to the witnesses, but I ask my colleagues to stay behind, because I would like to present a ruling from the Chair.

My fellow committee members, in this sort of situation, we're accustomed to discussing these matters in camera. However, the end of the parliamentary session is approaching and we have three meetings left before we adjourn for the summer. As you know, we've recently been trying to discuss what to do with the three meetings. So as Chair, I have made a decision on it, which the clerk will submit to you by email. I'd like you to respond to it by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.

At the same time, we will take into account what you presented at the beginning. You said that there were one or two other witnesses who wanted to appear before the committee. So if all committee members want it, that is always a possibility. However, I have heard several times from people that they would like to have a report, so it should be completed and submitted. We also have an opportunity to hear from other witnesses on the motion that we have already begun dealing with, because we have one and a half meetings remaining.

I didn't have that information before. I got it at the beginning of this meeting. I'm going to very quickly present what we agreed on with the clerk and the analyst. I must say that the analyst has been working very hard to be able to present us with a report on this study on post-secondary education in both official languages. The report will be submitted to you on Tuesday, June 15, at around noon. Since you will not necessarily have had time to read it, we felt that each paragraph of the report could be read in camera and discussed. It will be a short report, about 15 pages, and we will submit it to you on Tuesday, June 15.

To expedite the process surrounding the report, if we do wish to table it, I would ask you, committee members, to send in the recommendations that you wish to include in the report. You have heard from all the witnesses who have appeared, so there may be specific recommendations that you'd like to see in the report. As indicated in the email, we ask that you send those recommendations to us by 1:00 p.m. on Monday, June 14. We can then consider them in our discussions.

With respect to the three remaining meetings, you did mention two potential witnesses. However, even if those witnesses have made a request, you know that the clerk has to take steps with respect to headsets and all that. So it won't be possible to have witnesses on Tuesday. Therefore, we will meet in camera on Tuesday. We will have the report on the post-secondary education study in hand, so we can move forward.

That being said, for planning purposes, I'd like you to send us your comments by tomorrow on the email that you are going to receive by the end of the day.

We've already gone over the scheduled time for the meeting. You know that we now have to stop at the hour mark. I know that many of you may want to debate or discuss this, but unfortunately we'll have to try to find a way to come to a consensus, a decision by the Chair or a decision by committee members.

Once again I would like to thank the witnesses who took part in our proceedings.

I also want to thank all staff members on the committee, including the technicians, the clerk and the analyst.

With that, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a great day.

The meeting is adjourned.