Public Accounts Committee on April 22nd, 2021

[Andrew Marsland]

Again, it depends somewhat on the available data, but we will do as much as we can and be as comprehensive as we can to publish probably in February or March next year.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

That's terrific. Thank you.

Madam Chair, I didn't start my timer. I'm guessing I'm close to the end of my time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

You are. You have about 15 seconds left.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

Okay. Thank you to everybody. Your testimony will be very important for our report.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield.

We will now go to Mr. Blanchette-Joncas for six minutes.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair. I need a piece of information and I hope my speaking time won't be cut short.

Have you forgotten the motion I put forward a while ago?

My colleague Mr. Berthold mentioned that we were going to examine it.

However, I can see that you've started the meeting and that we haven't debated my motion. It wasn't even presented.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Mr. Blanchette-Joncas, we did receive notice of your motion. If you would like to table it now and begin to debate it, we could definitely do that, or we could finish up with our questioning of our witnesses and entertain debate on your motion at the end.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Madam Chair, I'd like to table my motion right away, please.

I'll read the notice of motion that you've received in both official languages:

That the Committee invite to appear in camera, as soon as possible, a senior official of the Privy Council Office, a senior official of the Office of the Auditor General and the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel of the House to explain and clarify the administrative procedures for invoking the concept of “Cabinet secrecy” respecting the data the Department of Finance shared with the Office of the Auditor General for her audit of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which are not available to parliamentarians, even though the Auditor General is an officer of Parliament, not the government.

I trust that the members of the committee understand that this is simply a formality to deal with the impasse we encountered at our last meeting.

It's an exercise that was also conducted in 2018, and its intent is to improve our knowledge of internal procedures.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you very much, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.

Colleagues, you have the motion before you. It is open for debate. Are there any comments?

Mr. Sorbara, please go ahead.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I'll be very quick because we have a number of witnesses here, and I'd like to ask some questions today.

How would this impact the schedule? Would it take away time from the meetings we have scheduled with regard to certain topics? Would it be outside the meetings we have scheduled? Would we add an additional meeting to have this done?

I have no problem with the motion put forward by Mr. Blanchette-Joncas. Je suis d'accord. I just want to know how it will impact our schedule and how we would schedule something to that extent.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you very much, Mr. Sorbara.

I began the meeting referring to some comments I had received from our clerk with regard to our committee receiving a briefing very similar to what Mr. Blanchette-Joncas has outlined. Obviously it would have an impact on our schedule, since we have begun to schedule all of the other studies.

I would ask either our clerk or our analysts to weigh in on how we might be able to move forward on fitting this in.

[The Clerk]

On the technical side, it's very difficult to schedule any extra meetings, because all of the meeting times are taken up. A new special committee has been recently created. We would have to do it within our schedule.

That being said, we could do it, if that's the will of the committee. Certainly there's no reason we could not schedule the meeting. It would just have to be within our regular time block.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you for that clarification.

Mr. Blanchette-Joncas, go ahead.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

What can the analysts tell us? As I mentioned, I believe something like this was done before. How much time would be required? I think they would be able to further clarify things for us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Mr. Léonard, please go ahead.

[André Léonard, Committee Researcher]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Our previous meeting lasted for an hour.

We could certainly do it in a single meeting, in an hour or two. Of course this would tighten the schedule somewhat and we would have less latitude for other matters if a problem were to occur as a report is being drafted or if we needed to call witnesses, for example.

It would nevertheless be possible to study the Auditor General's nine reports from February and March and to prepare our reports. We would be a little more pressed for time, but it's doable.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Mr. Longfield, go ahead.

[Lloyd Longfield, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

I note that the bells are ringing.

If we've already been briefed on this once, maybe we could get a briefing in writing, and then have no more than an hour for discussion, since we've already covered this ground.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Thank you, Mr. Longfield. Yes, the 30-minute bells are ringing.

I will need unanimous consent to continue sitting while the bells are ringing.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

There is consent.

I will be in conversation behind the scenes with the clerk. We will probably suspend in order to give you an opportunity to review the vote that's going to be taking place.

Are there any other comments on the timing or the scheduling of this briefing?

Mr. Sorbara, go ahead.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

Very quickly, an hour sounds very reasonable, as Mr. Longfield said. If we can get something in writing, they can come in and present further to that time period. If any of us have questions, we could then ask questions rather than giving a full allotment of time to everyone, and people could follow up with their own questions on their own time.

I'm fully on board to support my colleague, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

Go ahead, Mr. Berthold.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you very much.

I have a question for the analysts. Are we planning to have a report to study before May 27?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kelly Block]

I'm sorry, but can you repeat that, Mr. Berthold?