Evidence of meeting #4 for Status of Women in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was groups.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Order.
Committee members, we have a very full agenda, as you can see. We have to discuss our future business and a very small item on budgets, where I'll give you information on what we made need for gender budgeting. Then we have two motions.
I'm wondering if the analyst has distributed those reports.
Have the reports been distributed to all members?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
They've been sent, the official reports--official language, justice, and...on the court challenges program. So the studies are by three committees.
If all of you have these--and members, if I say too many things at the same time, just tell me to stop--I'd like to propose the following. When we come to the court challenges review or discussion, we should look at the three reports we have received from the clerk and determine if there are things that we need to study further. If there are, then we will tackle the motion of Madame Demers at the same time.
Okay?
I think everybody has received their work plan. What I'd like to bring to the attention of members of the committee is that our meeting today is the fourth, and that we will have five more meetings until December 12, including today's. We've already done meetings one, two and three, in terms of the election of the chair, passage of routine motions, and discussion of future business, and so on. So when we go through the work plan today, we are now talking about a very tight timeframe of five weeks before the House breaks.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Yes, sorry, it's five meetings before the House breaks.
Let's come up with something that's win-win such that we know what we have done, where we are moving.
In order to do that, this afternoon, thanks to the efforts of the clerk and the analyst, we have been able to get Ms. Beckton, the coordinator, Status of Women Canada; Ms. Dawn Nicholson; and Ms. Cindy Paquette. They are going to be here at 4:30. So we have one hour in which to discuss our work plan and the court challenges program.
What the analysts have done is this. Because we wanted some information sessions on the gender budgets, we had to be prepared to contact the witnesses and ensure that they were there for Wednesday. Otherwise we would have a very free Wednesday.
Simultaneously, we've been talking to the minister's office.
Madame Boucher, perhaps you could give me some idea of Minister Verner's timing. As soon as we finish this, if you could take an opportunity to update us, we would appreciate it.
If anybody has any connections to the justice minister—I tried to speak to him, but he was busy with the other justice bills—please, we'd like to have the three ministers: heritage, justice, and immigration. So we're looking at the government side to help us out.
Now, the next meeting that's going to take place is the meeting for Wednesday, November 28. We have Dr. Kathleen Lahey and Dr. Lisa Philipps. These are Canadian experts.
We would like to do video conferencing. We have the budget for video conferencing—we had already submitted the budget—so the clerk booked them. We had discussed that the analyst would give us the experts—these are Canadian experts, and we have international experts as well—so we could start the meeting rolling.
Once we understand from them what it is that gender budgeting really is all about, both from a Canadian perspective and an international perspective, then the last meeting, which is on Wednesday, December 12, we can sit down and put our heads together and say, “So what are the parameters around which this gender budgeting is going to take place? What form is this study going to take?”
I think it's important for all of us to be focused, because we really don't want to be all over the map. It'll take us three years, otherwise, to study, and we don't want to do that.
So that was the last meeting. We are hoping by that time that we would have enough witnesses to come and give us an idea.
Once we develop the parameters, then we start getting the names of witnesses from everyone saying, “So if this is the parameter, then this is who we want as witnesses”.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Okay.
Does anyone have any questions on the work plan?
Yes, Ms. Minna.
Liberal
Maria Minna Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
To the clerk, I know that my office gave a number of names. I see one of them on the list, Kathleen Lahey, but I don't see yet the others--Armine Yalnizyan, for instance, and I forget the name of the other person to do with income splitting.
I'm just asking the clerk.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
No, no, Ms. Minna, you have the right to ask the question.
We were looking for experts. The analyst had explained to me, about the names of the Canadian experts, that they had not confirmed by the time this thing was prepared. Now they have agreed to come. Dr. Isabella Bakker is willing to come on December 3, and Ms. Armine Yalnizyan is willing to come on December 5.
I'm going to leave it to the clerk to determine how to get the international experts, because one can only do teleconference and the other two can do video conferencing. One is from Australia, the other is from England, and the third one is from South Africa.
We will have to leave it to our able-bodied clerk to do the management of that, and she'll come back to us. Once we have those parameters, then we go forward.
Any other questions?
Madame Boucher, can you give us an update on Madam Verner?
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I have spoken with Ms. Verner. The Minister told me that she absolutely wanted to appear before the committee before Christmas. She believes it is very important that she come to talk to the Standing Committee on the Status of Women about her new mandate. The Minister's office is currently trying to get things moving so that she can appear before the committee.
As you know, we have asked her to appear before the three committees for which she is responsible: the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, the Standing Committee on Official Languages and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women. Because I have spoken with Josée and talked about it with Nathalie, I know that she will probably be able to make herself available during the second week of December.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Can we potentially put it on our work plan then? To move forward, we need the ministers. It's important that we get a solid confirmation--December 10 or 12?
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I am going to talk to her about it again tomorrow. I have to spend the day with her: we are on duty. So I will be able to talk to her about it tomorrow. We will make the connection with Nathalie. However, I can tell you that she wants to appear at the committee before Christmas.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Madame Boucher, just so you're aware, our international experts we've targeted for December 10. I want the committee's feedback on international experts. For example, for Ms. Rhonda Sharp, at the moment it would probably be ten o'clock at night for her.
What I'm trying to say is that we may want to move our meeting on December 10. What I may propose is that, if the minister's willing to come, we have two meetings on December 10.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
She will probably be able to appear on Wednesday, December 12.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
That is what we are working on most, because we had seen it in the plan. I know that she wants to appear here before Christmas. It will probably be on December 12.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
Thank you.
As the clerk asks, what happens if the House adjourns before or on December 12?
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
That would surprise me, but we are going to do everything we can to make sure she can appear. At present, we anticipate that we will still be sitting on the 14th. I do not think that proceedings will adjourn before that. For the moment, we are going to work on having her appear on the 12th. If we have further news, we will try to find a solution quickly. For the moment, the best date for Ms. Verner is December 12.
Conservative
Patricia Davidson Conservative Sarnia—Lambton, ON
Yes, Madam Chair. If I may, do you wish them to appear before the break, as well?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
If we could. We have those three reports, so we might as well get--