Evidence of meeting #36 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was goods.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Lyne Casavant Committee Researcher
Yes. I think we have to also take into account the translation. Every time we get information, if it's not translated, some time is needed to go through the translation process.
Reports also have to be edited, so it would be difficult to come back with something that looks like a report.
It would certainly be easier for us to come back with a fairly short summary of evidence and some recommendations from you, if you can send the recommendations to us before the end of next week.
Philip Rosen Committee Researcher
If I could add, Chair, because it's my colleague, Madam Casavant, who will be working on this report, we can easily go through the briefs and the evidence to see what recommendations were made by the witnesses you've heard. There are fairly specific ones, and there are about 10, 12, or 15 of them.
The second item is if you have recommendations that you as members wish to suggest, my proposal is that you send them through your clerk, Louise Hayes, and she'll make sure we get them.
I know Mr. Cullen is familiar with the process because it's what we did on another committee.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay. It's the end of next week, and that gives you one week to complete it.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
Mr. Chair, after we hear from Mr. MacKenzie's colleague, we'll go in camera to start discussing this. Is that the idea?
Conservative
Committee Researcher
Again, Chair, if I may, it won't be a report you're getting. It will be a collection of the recommendations you've heard. Once you've selected them, we could then go to a draft report.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Mr. Chair, do we have something else on the agenda or can we move to witness protection?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Well, I don't know. Does anybody else have anything else to bring forward?
NDP
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
No, we don't. We've had things previously.
Monsieur Ménard has the proposal for travel to Laval, and we always put it off. At some point, are we going to deal with that?
We also wanted to look at auto theft and the exporting of vehicles. We did that a while ago.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
This report is more urgent, yes. But the question was, do we have anything beyond that at this point?
Yes, Joe.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I would suggest that we in fact go to Laval on the Thursday.
When we return, on the Tuesday, we can set some time aside in that meeting of at least 15 to 20 minutes to go through a witness list for the witness protection. It will then give the clerk at least a week.
Conservative
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Yes, it would be towards the end of the meeting. Hopefully, it will give the clerk sufficient time to line those up for the following Tuesday.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
Can I make a suggestion?
I think we should spend the Thursday getting the basics on the current witness protection program, the people, and the RCMP officials who can tell us about it through a general briefing.
We could line up one witness for the Thursday we're back. It's a starting point, and we could then add more witnesses after that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I don't know. You're putting off the Laval trip again, and it will not happen.
Anyway, it's up to the committee.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Is there anything we have to do in preparation for the Laval trip? Is there some kind of budget that has to be approved? I don't know that we can just get on a bus and go there.
Okay. I don't know if you heard that, but we would need permission from the House to travel and we'd need approval on a travel budget. I thought it might not be as easy as just doing it next Thursday.
