Science and Research Committee on March 30th, 2023

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

I call this meeting back to order. I believe we have all of our technical issues fixed right now.

We have a motion from MP Blanchette-Joncas on the floor. I will open it up to debate.

Seeing no debate, are we in agreeance on the motion?

[Valerie Bradford, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I kind of forgot it.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Mr. Blanchette-Joncas, could you repeat the motion?

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Certainly, Mr. Chair.

I'll repeat it quickly, because I know the meeting is about to end.

At previous meetings of the committee, the minister, Mr. Champagne, and the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, Ms. Mona Nemer, appeared. I had asked them questions, but there wasn't enough time or it was impossible to give complete answers to my questions. I therefore asked for them in writing, and they were sent to us.

I'm simply asking the committee to be able to make them public so they can be included in our report, which would be enhanced through these recommendations.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Seeing no other comments from the floor, are we in agreeance?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Go ahead, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have another motion on the same subject.

Further to my request for written replies from the minister, Mr. Champagne, when he appeared on February 2, I received his answers on March 21. Unfortunately, a great deal of information was missing. I would say that only about one-quarter of my requests were answered.

I requested the amount of funding in French and in English at francophone and bilingual universities in Canada, with a breakdown by university and granting agency, over the past 20 years. That was my first request.

I also requested the number of scholarships in French and in English at francophone and bilingual universities in Canada, with a breakdown by university and granting agency, over the past 20 years. That was the first part of my request.

In the second part, I asked for concrete information about funding awarded by each granting agency to each Quebec university over the past 20 years. There are three Granting Agencies in Canada, but unfortunately, I only received a reply on funding for Quebec universities from 2002 to 2021, from NSERC, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada,nd from CIHR, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

I'm asking the committee to follow up with the industry department to obtain full answers to my requests.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

We have a motion on the floor from Mr. Blanchette-Joncas. I'll open it up for debate.

Go ahead, Ms. Bradford.

[Valerie Bradford, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Mr. Chair, I move that we now adjourn.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

I need to confirm what time that was, because we started late. I just need to make sure that we're on the right side of things. We might be—

[Valerie Bradford, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I need to get to the House.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

All right. As much as the meeting was pushed back at the start time, we are not at that time that adjournment would just take place, so we need to have a vote. It is a non-debatable motion, so I'll ask the clerk to call the question on adjournment of debate.

[The Clerk]

The yeas and nays are both five, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

The chair does have the ability to vote to break the tie. As I stated in the past, I will be voting as the vice-chair along party lines, so I too vote no.

(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)

We go back to debate.

Go ahead, Mr. Collins.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Can I ask, then, procedurally, until what time do we have resources today? What time did we start the meeting? Technically, what time was this meeting supposed to end today?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

I'll let the clerk answer.

[The Clerk]

Given the suspensions as well, our hard stop would be 2 p.m.

[Chad Collins, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

All right.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

All right. I'm looking for any other debate on this motion. If not, we'll put the question and hopefully get to QP before 2:00.

Clerk, can you call the question on the latest motion that MP Blanchette-Joncas put forward, unless there's debate?

[The Clerk]

As per the last vote, the yeas and nays are both 5.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

As per the last vote, the chair will break the tie and vote along party lines, voting yes.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)

Go ahead, MP Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you, Chair Tochor.

This goes a little bit to the point Ms. Bradford made about the motion to adjourn.

I do think, going forward, that we have to remember that as parliamentarians we are in charge of this committee. No offence to anybody's whip's office—I say that with whip staff behind my back here—but we decide when the meetings start and we decide when the meetings stop. If we wanted the meeting to stop after Mr. Balsillie at one o'clock, we could have done that regardless of what the whips' offices say.

I want to thank all the staff who support this committee for staying the hour extra. I'm sure you have other things to do besides sitting here. I want to thank all the interpreters and staff for doing that, because they do it in support of us.

We decide. If we want to end the meeting at 1:00 because it's 11 to one, that's when we end the meeting. It's for us to decide. I say that for going forward.

Thank you.

It might be my last meeting on this science committee after saying that, but it's nice to be here.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Seeing no other motions that are going to be introduced, I will look for a motion to adjourn the meeting.

[An hon. member]

I so move.

[An hon. member]

Let's run until 2:00 and see if we can all get back in time.