Evidence of meeting #47 for Science and Research in the 44th 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.
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
I haven't looked at the number of meetings, the number of hours we have, and what we have on our plate, but I would like to make sure that the studies we now have under way—there's this one that we're dealing with today, and I think there are two that we have reports written for, the French one and the citizen science one—are all done and dusted before we jump into this.
There may well be enough time to do that with the calendar. I don't know if I need to put forward an amendment to that effect, but that's what I would like to see happen. I don't want to start this one before those have been finished and presented to the House.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
I'll view that as a friendly amendment. The other studies will be completed before this starts on June 20.
Liberal
Chad Collins Liberal Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON
I thought we already had a motion on the books that the next study was going to on pay equity.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
That's correct. We do have a motion on the table that has been adopted that the pay equity study is our next study.
Bradford.
Liberal
Valerie Bradford Liberal Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON
I believe witnesses have already been contacted and lined up for that.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Hilary Smyth
Yes. Invitations have been sent for the next meeting, which is next week.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
The calendar came to us through the subcommittee was adopted by the committee as the calendar that we would be working under so that the clerk could do her work.
Go ahead, Mr. Tochor.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
That being said, the pressing nature of the involvement of Beijing in our universities I think takes precedence. I believe that we should be studying this on the 20th.
The urgent nature of this involvement is the reason we're debating this today. I would call a vote on the amended motion that I put forward, with Mr. Cannings' caveat that we wrap up the studies that are waiting for reports.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
We can't call the vote until we finish the discussion. If there isn't any further discussion, we could ask for a vote.
Go ahead, Mr. Cannings.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
The other consideration here is that we have developed this procedure of rotating studies through the parties, and I'm aware that Ms. Bradford's study was to be the next.
NDP
Richard Cannings NDP South Okanagan—West Kootenay, BC
If we do this, I just want to make sure that it's reflected in how we time the next study and that the Conservatives would not have their next one. Since I think it's a bit early to.... If we have already started the proceedings of inviting witnesses and all that for the next meeting, we should get that going. I don't want to waste a meeting in that regard, but again....
I must admit, I didn't think of Ms. Bradford's study when I was talking with Mr. Tochor about that, so I would rather we at least get that started. Again, I want to make sure we finish the other ones, and I don't want to end up wasting time. I think Ms. Bradford's study is just as pressing as this one, and I frankly don't see the emergency nature of this study. I think it's something that we should take on, but.... Under the threat of filibustering until the end of June, I'm happy to negotiate, but that's.... I just want to make sure that things are set down in a fair way after this so that the tradition is kept up.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Thank you.
I have a speaking list starting here. We have Ms. Metlege Diab with her hand up online. Then we'll go to Mr. Tochor.
I may need to consult the clerk, once we've had a little bit of discussion here, in terms of what our options may be going forward.
Liberal
Lena Metlege Diab Liberal Halifax West, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'm not exactly sure what the options are or what's happening, but I want to say the following. I was obviously involved, as were other members of the committee, when the topic of pay equity came up the last time before we decided to put another one in front of it, although we thought it was supposed to go before the other one. I, in no uncertain terms, would be willing to let that go. I just want that on the record. I think we had all agreed on this committee that it would be the next.
Failing any catastrophe.... Forgive me, folks; I am in my riding of Halifax West, where we are dealing with wildfires that are still running and are not under control. I have thousands of people evacuated and I have thousands of others who have been put on a 30-minute notice to be evacuated. I'm emotional and things are a bit tense, but with respect to the motion and to the study that is supposed to come next, I will not agree to let another one go before that one.
That's all I'm going to say.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
I think there's a solution here. It's that the study, with the amendments we've made, start on June 20, but we do both studies at the same time.
The pay equity study does not get pushed back. The other reports get finished up before June 20. We don't change the witnesses we've invited for next week. Witnesses won't be wasting their time. We can do two studies at the same time.
I would like to amend my motion even further to say that on June 20, both studies continue—the Beijing influence and the pay equity.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Because we're doing this on the fly, I'd like to consult with the clerk for a few minutes. If you need to, you can talk among yourselves.
Let's take five minutes to see where we are in terms of our schedule going forward. Again, as a reminder, we had a schedule that we were working under. If there's a change that needs to be made, let's see how we go about that.
Let's suspend for five minutes. We'll see you back at 12.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Lloyd Longfield
Welcome back.
There are lots of conversations, but if we could pull them back to the table now, I have a couple of points that I've discussed with the clerk on where we're at. I thank the clerk for her support.
We have an amendment on the floor that we need to reintroduce, because the mover of a motion can't amend their own motion. We'll come back to that.
We do have witnesses scheduled for next week. That's just for information. This motion would give us some freedom around that.
We've lost at least one hour today. We may be able to get some testimony in, depending on how the rest of this meeting goes. We might be able to get our witnesses to give us testimony today. We haven't been able to get questions to our first panel. We could ask our first panel questions. They've actually offered to answer any questions that we want to give them in writing. They will respond to us in writing.
We have two hours on the 13th scheduled to wrap up this study. We'll have to see; if we're able to recover at least the witness testimony for today, then we may be able to wrap up this study on the 13th, depending on how this meeting goes.
I have a couple of hands up. I think there was a question, right as I was suspending, about the speaking order. The speaking order for the first round was leading off with Dan Mazier, Chad Collins, Maxime Blanchette-Joncas and Richard Cannings. We could maintain that speaking order, since we didn't get to it. Mr. Mazier wanted to be first up—
