Evidence of meeting #72 for Public Safety and National Security in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was study.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Jean-Marie David
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.
We can now proceed to the election of the chair.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party. I am ready to receive motions to that effect.
Mr. Spengemann.
Liberal
Sven Spengemann Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Mr. Clerk, I would like to move the nomination of Mr. John McKay as chair for this committee.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Spengemann that Mr. John McKay be elected as chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare Mr. McKay duly elected and invite him to take the chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Thank you for that nomination, Sven, and for the confidence the committee has put in me. I have heard great reports about this committee and the work it's done in the last two years. I'm hoping that we can keep that going.
I hear great reports about the clerk and the analysts. I want to just mention that Rob Oliphant did a terrific job in the last couple of years. You as a committee did great work, and very influential work from what I can determine. I hope that I can continue that tradition or at least stay out of the way so you do the good work.
I think we still have some committee business to do here, Mr. Clerk.
The Clerk
We will proceed to the election of the first vice-chair. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.
Are there any nominations?
Mr. MacKenzie.
The Clerk
It's been moved by Mr. MacKenzie that Mr. Paul-Hus be elected as first vice-chair.
Are there any further motions?
(Motion agreed to)
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Congratulations.
I'm hoping to accomplish some business here today and to look at the fall agenda. Essentially, the next two days are Tuesday and Thursday of next week, and then we're anticipating receiving Bill C-21. Bill C-21 will occupy the committee time and take precedence over other committee work.
My thought had been that we would have a discussion on a larger basis as to where you want to see the committee go and what it wants to do for the fall session, and then after that we would adjourn and the steering subcommittee would meet. We would create a schedule, and then at the first available opportunity come back to the main committee and present that schedule to the main committee. I hope that suits members.
The first item of business is to resolve what we're going to do next Tuesday and next Thursday. One suggestion has been that we get a briefing on the migrant issue. A sub-suggestion of that is that we do it jointly with the immigration committee. That's an option, shall we say. It is a meeting that we can pull together. The clerks have assured me that they can pull it together, and quickly, because it mostly would be officials.
Monsieur Paul-Hus.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Mr. Chair, I would like to make two motions.
The first is about marijuana. I would like us to check whether it is possible to conduct a study on the effects of marijuana on public safety.
I would also like to make a motion about the problems related to migrants. The objective is to conduct a study on the management problems at the border faced by the RCMP and the Canada Border Services Agency.
We can discuss them later.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
I would like to make a suggestion for next week. Is there a motion on the floor, though?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
It's in order, but he hasn't.... I believe your notice period is 48 hours.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
The clerk has raised the issue of whether we want to do this in camera or in public. I'm agnostic.
Conservative
Pierre Paul-Hus Conservative Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC
Is the issue whether the meeting must remain public when we are discussing these motions?
My goal today is actually just to introduce two motions. One deals with migrants and the other deals with marijuana. I don’t necessarily want to discuss them today. I just want to introduce them.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Will we have the steering committee look at what we're going to do in terms of studies and that type of thing?
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Okay.
In terms of next week, we have a lot of new members on the committee, so for those who weren't here, our first study was on the mental health of our first responders and public safety officers. We looked at a number of different tools that could be used for those individuals. One of them was the road to mental readiness program, which has been adapted for public safety officers and first responders.
The Canadian Mental Health Association has approached us to see if the committee would be interested in getting a condensed version of what that training is. Normally it's four hours, but it would be two hours to fit within our committee time. We would also have the opportunity to ask them some questions about it. While it's an excellent tool for public safety officers, within the public safety community there are questions as to.... It's been adapted from the military to be used for the RCMP and then rolled out. We know that we're getting legislation and that we're not going to have a lot of time to do a study next week. However, they're available, so I wondered if the committee would be agreeable to having them come in for one of our meetings next week to do the shortened version of the training and also to give us some information on it.
Those who were here will recall that we had a unanimous report on the issue. I think it was the first unanimous report we had in 10 years from this committee, so I know it's an issue that all parties are concerned about and very passionate about. Certainly on the Conservative side you have a member who has introduced a private member's bill on this. Matthew has been incredibly supportive of our first responders and public safety officers.
I just put that out there to see if the committee would be agreeable for them to come in—probably on Tuesday, but we would leave that for the clerk to arrange—and give us some information on that.
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
Just as a point of clarity, this is an information session for us?
Conservative
Glen Motz Conservative Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB
I left policing in 2015, and as I understand it, we already rolled out the mental readiness program for our people back in 2014 or 2015.
