Public Safety Committee on March 8th, 2016

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

He's a lot older than he looks.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

There's a compliment.

I want to try to cover two topics today, Mr. Minister. I want to talk a little about the oversight committee, and then I want to talk a little about the no-fly list, and if you'll permit, I'd like to ask some very targeted questions regarding oversight.

You talked about our fundamental commitment to creating a national oversight committee. You talked about Canada being an anomaly among our partners, and particularly with respect to the Five Eyes. You talked as well about the creation of that committee as a creature of statute. There'll be a piece of legislation that basically strikes a national security oversight committee. Is that right?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That's correct.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Will this be an all-party committee?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

Yes.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Will it be made up of parties from all sides of the House?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That's right.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Will it be made up as well of both Houses? Is that what we're contemplating right now?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That remains an open question. We haven't yet had that conversation with the Senate, but we're open to a good discussion of it.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Is it safe to say that we'd like to see progress so that we could include the Senate as part of this committee?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

I'd like to see it be comprehensive, but we haven't really crossed that policy bridge yet.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Will membership of the committee exclude ministers and parliamentary secretaries?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

You said “exclude”? Yes.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Okay. Will these be order in council appointments, which is to say, will the people be appointed by the Prime Minister's Office or by cabinet?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

The method of selection has not yet been determined. What will be required is an extraordinary level of security clearance, because obviously these members of Parliament will have access to very sensitive information and will need to be appointed on a basis that respects that very critical dimension of public safety and security.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Is it possible that as part of the process the screening may contemplate an order in council appointment?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That's possible, yes.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Okay.

You mentioned earlier to some of my colleagues on the other side about appointing members from the opposition. Is it the government's plan to consult with leaders of the opposition parties before including members of their party?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

There obviously needs to be very thorough consultation with party leaders and with members of Parliament in order to get this appointment process right. The exact methodology has not been settled, but we will seek advice on all sides of the House to make sure we have a satisfactory way of assembling the committee.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Regarding powers that are contemplated for the national security oversight committee, is it your vision that the committee will have the power to compel witnesses to attend and give evidence?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That policy question has not yet been determined.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

Has it been determined whether or not we'll have the ability to compel individuals to bring information that might otherwise be categorized as privileged under the national security provisions?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

That's in the same category of compelling witnesses or compelling documents. Those issues have not been resolved yet, but I do repeat the objective here. This committee has to be real. It has to be credible. It has to be trustworthy so that when it does its work and offers comments to Canadians on the nature of its work, Canadians will be able to trust that they are being told the truth. Credibility is absolutely essential here, and we need to make sure the committee has the tools necessary and the resources and the research capacity to do its job.

[Marco Mendicino, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

I have one last question on a national security oversight committee. Will we find any references to it in the supplementary estimates, or is it safe to say that because we're not at the stage yet where presenting the legislation is imminent with regard to this committee, it's not in the current supplementary estimates?

[Ralph Goodale, Liberal, Regina—Wascana, SK]

It's not in the current numbers. This again gets back to my first point about the strange way in which Parliament deals with estimates. The main estimates that have been tabled are actually based on last year's budget, not the budget we'll get on March 22, so we have to change the order of things here to make it logical.