Public Accounts Committee on April 28th, 2009

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'd like to call the meeting to order and welcome everyone. Bienvenue à tous.

I was going to say the meeting's in camera, but the first part is not in camera. I'm going to open this as a public meeting and deal with one issue on the agenda, and that is the consideration of the minutes of the steering committee held earlier today. The minutes are in front of you, and I will just highlight them.

The first item is on rescheduling the committee's study of chapter 4, “Managing Risks to Canada's Plant Resources”. There was a problem with the dates, so the clerk has to reschedule that hearing.

Second, the May 14 hearing with the Auditor General dealing with all chapters of her May 2009 report, tabled in Parliament on May 12, will be televised if possible.

The third item deals with a translation issue of a fairly large audio cassette that was in both English and French. The steering committee agreed to present that in the language in which it was delivered, because of the enormous time and cost to translate it, which is not the ordinary course of events.

Next is that the committee submit to the Liaison Committee a budget of $27,958 for the costs involved in taking people to the annual conference of the Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees in Edmonton.

Finally, there's an informal meeting to which all members of this committee will be invited with a parliamentary delegation from Pakistan. It will be at lunch on Wednesday, May 13, and you'll get a further invitation on that item.

Is there any discussion on the minutes of the steering committee?

Mr. Shipley.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

On item three, the audio cassette records requested by the committee in relation to the study of chapter 3, what sort of impact does that have? What do you have to do? Is there a cost to that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'll explain as best I can, and maybe the clerk can fill in where I'm wrong. A certain member requested that this be tabled with the committee. The department involved had no choice, so they agreed to table it. It's a fairly lengthy audio cassette, and if it were to be translated it would probably cost $100,000 and delay the proceedings for months. Of course, it's the law of this committee that any document tabled be in both official languages. On rare occasions we will make an exception, if it's a voluminous thing and the committee agrees, of course. In this case it is recommended that the committee agree.

Madam Clerk, do you want to speak further on that?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Joann Garbig]

That's essentially it. The recommendation is for the committee to make an exception to the usual rule of all material being provided in both official languages for the sake of these audio records, which I understand exist in floor sound--some English and some French. But I understand that no version or transcript exists in both official languages. So the request is to accept the audio record as the translation.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

Thank you.

[Shawn Murphy, Liberal, Charlottetown, PE]

Thank you.

Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

On item one, I'm advised that it's likely not an issue, but I have to touch on it because we're having so much trouble getting it on an agenda. Do I understand it's merely an administrative delay and it's about to be slotted in soon, as opposed to being a struggle of some sort? Ms. Ratansi will recall the struggle here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

It's no struggle. In fact, it was probably a mistake the committee made. In our previous minutes we fixed a date. There was a witness availability issue and we just have to change the date. But there's no issue. It'll be rescheduled around the same time as we originally scheduled it.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That's fine.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Are there any further discussions?

I'll put the matter to a vote. All in favour of the minutes as circulated?

(Motion agreed to)

Now we are going to adjourn this part of the meeting.

[Proceedings continue in camera]