Status of Women Committee on June 21st, 2011

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

That's right.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

I believe this also is very much connected to the work the clerk has to do, and I understand that this is a reasonable proposal.

Is there discussion on this proposal? All in support of the new number ten with the additions?

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Excellent. Thank you very much.

With regard to number eleven, on BlackBerrys, there was a motion in the last round and the last Parliament pertaining to BlackBerry use out of respect to witnesses. We are not obliged to maintain the same proposal.

Is there discussion, perhaps an indication of the wishes of the committee in this matter?

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

In regard to BlackBerrys, I'm not sure if we really need anything specific in there to say that we should all be respectful of any witnesses. There are some members here who might have to have a BlackBerry on for whatever urgent business they might have. I would probably just keep it off, and we should all just be mindful that when witnesses are up there speaking, we shouldn't have them on unless we really need to.

Does everyone agree?

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

That's excellent.

Mr. Holder.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I would add that I like the idea of not having it in there and of just showing some class and respect to our guests and treating them properly. I like that very much. It would make this committee unique amongst all committees, I will tell you. We've had witnesses on the international trade committee who have said it's refreshing to come to a committee where people are not all talking amongst themselves and distracted by other things and on their BlackBerry all the time.

I'm absolutely glad to support that we take it out. I love the refreshing candour. I think it' s very nice.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Thank you for the contribution, Mr. Holder.

I understand that there is a will to keep the section out but to show respect and class. I like the use of the word nonetheless. Is the committee okay with that change?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

That's excellent. Thank you very much.

That concludes our discussion on motions. We do have a few minutes before the bells start ringing in anticipation of the vote. I would like to open the last moments that we do have to any discussion that members would like to bring forward.

Ms. Sgro.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and congratulations...[Technical Difficulty—Editor].

I'd like to suggest that...[Technical Difficulty—Editor]...the areas of study that we do...[Technical Difficulty—Editor]...was extremely important and something that everybody agreed to. Just to keep it short, I would like to suggest to the committee that we continue.... I'm not necessarily talking about the travel issue, but I think we need to look at that study and where it might go when we resume in September.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Thank you, Ms. Sgro.

Is there discussion on the motion being brought forward?

Mr. Holder.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

With respect--and I appreciate that this is my first time on this committee, and I say this with great respect for the importance of that issue amongst a number of issues that are very important and with absolute interest in this as a topic--it strikes me that, as we flesh out subcommittee or not subcommittee but more importantly the agenda and the issues that we are looking forward to taking, it might be more helpful to look at what the first several issues are going to be once we're ready to deal with them. I suspect that would be one of the first priorities we'd consider in the fall. I would be shocked if that wasn't among them because of its importance. I think doing more of a collective as opposed to one-offs from an organization standpoint will get our heads around how we want to organize our key areas for the fall.

So I would respectfully suggest that it be a topic but as part of the whole, if you're all right with that.

Also, since we're in the Promenade and we have a little farther to go, I might ask you to be mindful of the clock, Madam Chair.

And congratulations on your election as well.

[Susan Truppe, Conservative, London North Centre, ON]

I would like to make a motion to adjourn, unless anyone has anything else.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

I had just something brief.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

Given that Ms. Boivin previously wanted to contribute to the discussion, we'll go to her before we go to the motion.

[Françoise Boivin, NDP, Gatineau, QC]

It's very brief.

I appreciate Judy's comment in that...

The only thing I want to say on that point is that I read the report. There is just a little piece missing, and I know the minister worked very hard on those issues. I think this committee would lose something great that has been done by the previous committee if we didn't at least advance a tiny bit and go into the recommendation stage.

I do not know how you say that in English. We could table that now so as to at least be able to continue the work. I agree with Mr. Holder that it could be part of the whole, given the number of issues to be considered, including pay equity and gender-based analysis. There will be many issues that we will be called on to address in September.

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

So I understand that the desire is to reconsider in the fall. There seems to be an understanding that this is an important file to continue. I know I was involved with it in the previous Parliament. Much hard work was done on this file.

It seems that we do need to wrap up and move on to our next topic. As many of you might know, Thursday is scheduled to be our last day. Given our time commitments in terms of this week, perhaps we can suggest that we will meet again in the fall and continue our important work then.

Again, thank you very much for your support.

Perhaps we can thank as well our analysts and our clerk, the “clerk team” that will be working hard with us in this effort.

Thank you very much.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, NDP, Niki Ashton]

The meeting is adjourned.