Physician-Assisted Dying Committee on Jan. 18th, 2016

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

The next item is about the rooms we will be meeting in. Normally we have three committee rooms available to us: this room, the one across the hall, and room C-110 of the Wellington Building. All three committee rooms have the capacity for television. However, only the Wellington room has the capacity for teleconferencing.

Normally we meet in Centre Block, either in this room or across the hall. The proposal would be that if we have a witness who is coming to us through a teleconference, we would meet in the Wellington Building. Do members of the committee agree to that?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

The next item of other business is that of a draft budget. We now need to circulate a copy of the proposal on the draft budget. Do I have your permission to circulate that copy?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

While you're reading that, I'll just give you a bit of background from the summary note.

Special joint committees do not receive any type of interim funding and must make all requests for funding to the Board of Internal Economy, and on the Senate side to the Internal Economy Committee. As such, the proposal is that an initial amount of $50,000 be requested in order to begin inviting witnesses. A request has been prepared by the joint clerks.

We will require a member of the committee to move that we be authorized to pursue this request.

[James S. Cowan]

I so move.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

The motion is before you. Is there any discussion?

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

On a point of information about services, the proposal talks about travel and witness claims under “services”. What about services for translation, report writing, and so on? Is that normally included in that budget or not?

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

It's my understanding that this deals with witnesses, including video conferencing. It does include meals but it doesn't include travel.

Are there any further clarifications?

(Motion agreed to)

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Mr. Joint Chair, could the committee hold a 15 or 20-minute in camera discussion at the end of the meeting?

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Are all in favour of going in camera to have a discussion about future meetings and witnesses?

(Motion agreed to)

I suggest that we suspend for a few minutes so that we can take the time to allow people to leave the room. Then we will meet in camera.

[Proceedings continue in camera]