I must say that as the chair my comment is simply that we have asked a minister who is particularly responsible to this committee and we have not even heard from her. I have not had a simple response of any kind--a yes, no, don't bother me, or anything. I've just had nothing.
Minister Oda had said she couldn't come on the dates that we had suggested, and we have since sent back to ask her if she could come on May 26, which would be before the end of May. We have not heard a response to that.
We're now asking two ministers to come. I would just like to comment that in the past, when we were looking at other issues, such as EI, we had asked the minister of HRSDC to come. We had asked the minister of the Treasury Board to come with regard to pay equity. Ministers do not have to appear before a committee. I guess that's their executive prerogative not to do so. However, as chair of the committee, I might suggest that when a committee asks for information and asks for clarification because we need to understand the issue better, I really think.... I have been here for 17 years, and it's the first time I have seen ministers completely not responding. It's not just not coming, but it's not responding to chairs of committees and committees who request their presence. That concerns me a little bit. It is something I think Ms. Simson is alluding to.
I know the parliamentary secretary can only do what the parliamentary secretary can do, which is ask. If the parliamentary secretary doesn't get an answer, she's being considered to be not as important as the committee is either. A committee of the House is an important body. You've heard the Speaker speak to this issue. A committee of the House is here, in a non-partisan way, to gather information, to understand the issues, and to speak to them, to report on them, to make recommendations, if they believe that Parliament does not have the answers it requires. That's how you get answers, through committees. So I am concerned, and I want the concern to be on the record in this instance.
I sent a third letter to the ministers last week, personally sending them the motion, reminding them that this has to be done before the end of June, and we have not heard anything back. Not even to acknowledge is not a good thing, I think. It's not particularly respectful of committees.
That's speaking to the issue of Ms. Simson's question.
Now, we have another question we need to ask. Ms. Neville had put forward a motion in the last meeting that the committee hold a special meeting to examine the manner in which funding is distributed by Status of Women Canada, etc. She had said that this was a special meeting. The point is, if it's a special meeting, I asked everyone to think about it, because it means it is outside of the two meetings a week that we have. Have you got a date, as a committee, that we will stay one evening and get this done? We have all passed this motion--it was passed by the committee--to hold a special meeting. “Special” means outside the normal meetings. It's for one meeting. We've asked for this to come to the clerk and the analyst, but we have not had a response from the committee on this. We need to make that decision.
Ms. Neville.