Status of Women Committee on Feb. 17th, 2011

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Ms. Neville, can you wrap up? I need to call a vote.

[Anita Neville, Liberal, Winnipeg South Centre, MB]

I'll stop.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you.

I have to call a vote. There's no more room for discussion on this issue.

Those in favour of the motion as written?

Yes, Madame Boucher? I'm listening.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I think that some people would like to speak to that issue. We have the right to know how we are going to move forward on this matter.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Madame Boucher, would everyone on this committee agree to stay an extra 10 minutes so we can finish a debate?

I am looking at the time. We have to get out of here at one o'clock. It is now one minute to one. If you're prepared to stay here, I need unanimous consent of this committee to stay for an extra 10 minutes. May I ask the committee first?

[Ray Boughen, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

What about next week to vote...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Are you prepared to wait until next week, Ms. Neville?

All right, then. We will postpone this until next week. We will discuss it more fully. Thank you.

Because obviously we have to finish at a particular time, and I can only spread that time or move the debate to another day, if the mover is in agreement, and if everyone's in agreement to spend extra time.... I can't just allow people to speak.

I'm not being unfair, Madame Boucher, when I say the time is up and we have to cut off the debate. Thank you.

Can I entertain a motion to adjourn?

Sorry. Dona?

[Dona Cadman, Conservative, Surrey North, BC]

Can I ask you a question? It's not about this vote or anything. I'll be very quick.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Okay. We have time.

[Dona Cadman, Conservative, Surrey North, BC]

I want to go to a reserve. We've been to Williams Lake. I don't know how many of you have been on a reserve. A few of you have, but I have not been on one. I would like to personally see one, if we could. Is that possible?

I would even use my own money and my own time to go to see it. I just want to see first-hand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Well, the blunt answer is that we have no more money left for travel, so there is no more money left to do that.

Dona, you can do what you wish. You can spend money and go to a reserve. I'm sure we can find a reserve for you to go to if you want to do that on your own. We can get you that information, etc., but unfortunately we had to bargain down the amount of money, which I think, as everyone mentioned here, was terrible. We watch other committees getting money to travel to Nigeria and everywhere to talk about immigration and we don't get money to deal with a really seminal problem, unfortunately.

Madame Boucher.

[Sylvie Boucher, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

I would like to know whether it is possible to change committee rooms. It is becoming harder for some committee members to get to 131 Queen Street. Would it be possible to have our next meetings elsewhere than here?

This morning, I saw Ms. Neville again. We always arrive late, because many committees meet at 1 Wellington Street. Would it be possible to meet over there, or in the La Promenade building, or in another place, which would be easier to get to? It is hard to make it over here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

When we come back, we will be at One Wellington; we've wrangled that. But the point remains that, no matter what the committee is, getting to 131 Queen has been a problem. I would encourage all of you to speak to your House leaders and your whips and to complain, because the problem is not that we don't have the buses. We have three buses coming to 131 Queen. Everyone else has two; we have three. We come out of there and three buses are lined up. We come out to get a bus on the Hill and there are three buses lined up, one behind the other.

Either we need some kind of coordinator to manage these buses so one's on the way, one is here, and one is there...obviously. Please speak to your House leaders and whips about this problem, because it's facing everybody who comes to this venue.

[An hon. member]

So it's 131 Queen that's the problem?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, it's 131 Queen.

Thank you.

Can I have a motion to adjourn, please? Okay, Dona.

The meeting is adjourned.