Public Accounts Committee on April 9th, 2024

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

The budget for “Report 4—National Trade Corridors Fund—Transport Canada” is for $1,500. Is that approved?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you very much.

Very good. We're going to go over the subcommittee meeting we had recently. Of note, I'm negotiating with the subcommittee members for a follow-up meeting, based in part on any feedback out of this, to plan the next steps.

I will say off the top that the deadline for ArriveCAN witnesses, as per my email, is tomorrow at noon. Given that it's a caucus day, that probably means tonight for most members because we're locked up without our devices—at least some of us are—for caucus meetings. I will just flag that to you and your teams.

Could I ask the subcommittee members to meet me right after the meeting so that we can try to agree on a time for the next meeting?

I'll go through this and see if I have it more or less correct. Then we'll pick it up from there. There are about eight points.

On March 21, your subcommittee met to discuss and prioritize upcoming business and to review the calendar. We will have a meeting on the 11th on “Report 2—Housing in First Nations Communities”. We'll have a meeting on the 16th on “Report 4—National Trade Corridors Fund”.

We will then have Ms. Anand in the first hour on the 18th. This is per a motion that was passed by this committee but was also discussed, approved and reinforced in the subcommittee. We'll have the Auditor General on the main estimates in the second hour. This was again discussed in the subcommittee. It's also something that we as a committee do automatically.

On April 30, we'll meet on the topic of “Report 3—First Nations and Inuit Policing Program”.

These studies reflect the priorities, alongside ArriveCAN, as provided by the parties of the committee. I think everyone agreed that there were a number of top priorities, and I would say that we settled on everyone's top two. Some parties had a longer list. Others were quite focused, so what I did with the calendar was to fill up what was agreed to.

There was a request from Mr. Desjarlais for possible additional studies on the indigenous studies. Before going too far down that path, Mr. Desjarlais agreed to first have these meetings, and then we would come back to the subcommittee to discuss next steps.

The clerk and I are still working to find a date for Minister Blair, as per a motion that was passed by this committee.

We've scheduled, as per the study on Public Accounts 2023, with the Bank of Canada and the CPP Investment Board. This had previously been agreed to as part of a broader study on Public Accounts 2023. We were able to hear from witnesses from the government members, as well as the Bloc Québécois. These last two are for the Conservatives and the NDP.

We will also be hosting an informal meeting with Indonesian lawmakers on their public accounts committee on May 23, after our regular meeting. This obviously is more in the area of our diplomatic relations as lawmakers. They're hoping to come in to see our committee doing its normal business in public. We'll try to find something on the calendar for that. Then we'll have a discussion with them afterwards.

Finally, we finalized wording for the INAN committee letter, which was distributed to all of you. It was then sent to that committee. Again, that's as per a motion that was passed in this committee.

That's really the discussion that we had and the best that I could distill it, with assistance from the clerk.

I'm happy to take comments on it, and we'll see where we're at there.

Mr. Desjarlais was first.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Hilary Smyth]

It's Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné's turn.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

My apologies, Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné.

Thankfully, I have the clerk here to correct me.

Go ahead, Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné.

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a quick question.

You said Ms. Anand would be appearing, but could you remind us what the context was and what the motion was about, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I will defer to the clerk.

[The Clerk]

Are you talking about the motion pertaining to Ms. Anand?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

I know that she will be here for only an hour, but the clerk will locate the exact motion.

In the meantime, I'll turn to Mr. Desjarlais, so we can move things along here, but we'll come back to you, Madame Sinclair-Desgagné.

Did you have a point you wanted to raise, Mr. Desjarlais?

[Blake Desjarlais, NDP, Edmonton Griesbach, AB]

For the members who weren't present at the subcommittee, I have the two reports specific to the ones that the Auditor General tabled. My intention, however, is to speak more broadly to the Auditor General's comments.

In several audits, not just the policing and the housing audit.... You may recall the third audit on clean water she tabled here.... There were 20 years of neglect. She said it was beyond unacceptable. She asked this committee to do more, and to find ways to ensure that those recommendations weren't just agreed to by the department but that there was actually a will to see them enforced.

That's why I think a serious set of meetings is necessary on several issues pertaining to first nations people, above the policing and housing, to include clean water and the study that we reviewed in 2022.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Are there any other comments? Are members satisfied?

The subcommittee, of course, will pick things up again soon.

Go ahead, Ms. Yip.

[Jean Yip, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I had also mentioned that I would like these studies to be considered, namely, the first report under the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act and the third report entitled “Discretionary Powers to Protect Species At Risk”.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Thank you.

I'll now turn the floor over to the clerk to provide the requested information.

[The Clerk]

The motion pertaining to Ms. Anand reads as follows:

That the committee report to the House that it invites the President of the Treasury Board, Anita Anand to appear for no less than two hours in relation to the ArriveCAN study, and that this meeting occur within three weeks of this motion being adopted.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

Did you have any other comments, Ms. Sinclair‑Desgagné?

[Nathalie Sinclair-Desgagné, Bloc, Terrebonne, QC]

I wanted to respond to Ms. Yip, but perhaps we can discuss it in subcommittee. If I remember correctly, what Ms. Yip had asked for was the meeting on forests, and that's already taken place. Therefore, we can't add a bunch of reports to what had already been—

[The Chair, Conservative, John Williamson]

We'll talk about it in subcommittee.

Just a note to the subcommittee, we will probably begin to meet more frequently so that we can have an airing of witnesses and a discussion about priorities that will come from both the government and opposition side to plan out the calendar.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday regarding the second report entitled “Housing in First Nations Communities”.

The witness list for ArriveCAN is due tomorrow.

Are there any other comments?

I'm going to ask the subcommittee members to come up here right after I adjourn the meeting.

The meeting is adjourned.