Evidence of meeting #9 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 meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:05 a.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Louise Hayes
Honourable members of the committee, my name is Louise Hayes.
I'm the clerk of the committee.
I see a quorum. We can now proceed to the election of the chair.
I am ready to receive motions to that effect.
Mr. MacKenzie.
9:05 a.m.
The Clerk
It has been moved by David MacKenzie that Gary Breitkreuz be elected chair of the committee.
Are there further motions?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Gary Breitkreuz duly elected chair of the committee.
Before inviting the chair to take the chair, we will proceed to the election of vice-chairs.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106, the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.
9:05 a.m.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Gurbax Malhi that Mark Holland be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any other motions?
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mark Holland duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.
I'm now ready to receive nominations for the position of second vice-chair.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106, the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.
9:05 a.m.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Serge Ménard that Joe Comartin be elected as second vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any other nominations?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Joe Comartin duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.
I now invite the chair to take the chair.
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Thank you very much, colleagues, for your continued support, and congratulations to the vice-chair and second vice-chair. I look forward to working together with you. I think we've had a fairly good working relationship thus far, and I would hope that would continue.
We have been discussing possible future business of the committee at the steering committee. I was wondering if you would like to take forward some of the recommendations. We would have to agree that this meeting would continue. If there is agreement, we could continue and discuss some of the future business of the committee.
What is your feeling about that? Is there agreement that we proceed with the future business of the committee? Are there any concerns about that? If we do agree, then we would have to make the decision as to whether that would proceed in camera or not.
First of all, do you wish to discuss future business of the committee? I see heads nodding. I take it we will move ahead with that then.
Do you wish to convene in camera or have an open discussion? Are there any problems with an open discussion?
9:05 a.m.
Some hon. members
Open.
9:05 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
We will proceed, then, with an open discussion of future business of the committee.
Mr. MacKenzie.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
Mr. Chair, we had previously discussed--and I think Mr. Ménard presented a notice of motion to request--that the Commissioner of the RCMP be present. I can tell you that to the best of my knowledge plans have been made and Commissioner Zaccardelli will appear before the committee on Thursday of this week at 9 o'clock.
The other part of that is that Minister Day would be here for 10 o'clock on the same date. So we can have both the commissioner and the minister responsible present on Thursday of this week. I understood from the clerk that she had not had confirmation of the commissioner. We're just trying to confirm that he will be here on Thursday. I should have some information on that very shortly. But it's my belief that he will be here at 9 o'clock on Thursday.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
It will be 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock. We originally had a Russian delegation scheduled to be here from 9 until 10. Maybe the clerk can tell us what's happening with that Russian delegation. Are they still coming?
9:10 a.m.
The Clerk
They're apparently still scheduled to come, but if it's the pleasure of the committee, we could cancel that. It is up to the committee.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
What would be the repercussions with the Russian delegation? A few months ago one delegation came here that was not able to appear and there was concern afterwards that maybe we didn't handle that well.
Are they counting on seeing us?
9:10 a.m.
The Clerk
I can get in touch with them after the meeting. The other option would be to meet with the Russian delegation for the first hour or 45 minutes, then meet with either Minister Day or Commissioner Zaccardelli, and then meet with the other one. We could meet for a little longer on Thursday. That would be the other option. I'm in the hands of the committee.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
Dave MacKenzie Conservative Oxford, ON
It's whatever the committee wants, but I don't think we should bump the foreign delegation that's already scheduled to be here. That was obviously an oversight on our side; we neglected to check the schedule. I was aware that the Russian delegation would be here, so my apologies. I think the committee would like to meet with the Russian delegation, and then we could fit the commissioner in after that.
9:10 a.m.
Bloc
Serge Ménard Bloc Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC
I'm concerned about two things. Like other committee members, I believe it would be major slight on our part not to receive the Russian delegation. If we don't meet with the delegation this time around, the opportunity will not likely come again. The delegates have travelled a long way and meeting them is a matter of international courtesy, etiquette and protocol.
Given the importance of the issue and the questions we want to put to Commissioner Zaccardelli, one hour isn't much time, in my view. I think we need to schedule at least two hours for our meeting with Commissioner Zaccardelli, even if it means meeting the minister at a later date.
May I remind you of some comments I've made each time we follow the committee rules of procedure. In my opinion, the time allotted to question witnesses should include only the time taken to ask questions, not the time taken by the witnesses to respond. The person that came to mind when I made this suggestion was Commissioner Zaccardelli who has truly mastered the art of taking 10 minutes to answer a simple question, using up in the process all of the time allotted to a member for questions and comments.
I understand your decision to abide by existing procedural rules. However, the report is quite lengthy, 1,400 pages long, if I'm not mistaken, and it raises a number of issues. Therefore, I think we should plan for a two-hour meeting.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I agree with Mr. Ménard. We are going to require two hours with the commissioner in order to get anywhere near a satisfactory exchange with him on these issues.
I'm feeling very uncomfortable about delaying or cancelling the Russian delegation. I don't think we should do that. So my suggestion would be to restrict that to a half hour. We could start at 9:30 with the commissioner and go until 11:30 with him.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Let's divide this decision into parts.
First, we could meet with the Russian delegation at 9 o'clock. There have been suggestions to meet with them for half an hour and one hour. My personal feeling is that half an hour is really not very much time. I think that would be perceived by them as being almost a brush-off. It should be a minimum of 45 minutes. I don't think it's going to hurt us all that much to see them for an hour and just delay the beginning of the meeting until 10 o'clock. That is my personal opinion.
What do you feel about that? I think we have to be very careful in the way we treat foreign delegations. I would like to see us honour the commitment we've made. We've had that commitment for quite some time.
Mr. Holland.
September 26th, 2006 / 9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Mark Holland Liberal Ajax—Pickering, ON
I wouldn't have a problem with that. I think I would concur, though, with the others who said that the meeting needs two hours. I certainly don't have a problem with delaying the meeting to 10 a.m., to give the proper time for the Russian delegation, so long as we're still left with two hours for the meeting itself. I don't have any problem with that.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Okay.
Is there consensus that we keep our original commitment to meet the delegation from Russia for one hour?
