Status of Women Committee on March 10th, 2016

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Yes.

[Laura Munn-Rivard]

Where we were lacking perhaps a national organization, a leader in that field, I took the opportunity upon the request of the committee at the last meeting to suggest witnesses, and a little asterisk was put behind it. That was at your guidance. Those can also be taken away.

What I could do is prepare a document that summarizes the witnesses, what their role is. This would explain who everyone is. At the next available meeting, you could look at that document. It's hard to guess who these people are from a name on a piece of paper. I'd be happy to prepare that if the committee wills it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Vecchio.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Thank you very much for that. As a point of clarification, we're going to look at these and the steering committee is going to step back once we've received all the additional names in the next week and a half, and then we'll prioritize who we're going to see, starting with the government departments. Is that what I'm understanding? That's the amendment and the subamendment that's been put on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We'll go with the motion, the amendment, and then the subamendment.

The motion is that the next meeting be what you see in your work plan under A and B. The amendment to that is that the remainder of the work plan be referred to the subcommittee to meet at the first available opportunity to bring back a revised work plan to the committee.

The subamendment is that we would request the analyst to submit additional witness recommendations to be incorporated into that draft work plan.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Which she's already done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Which she has said she's already done.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

If I could...inside the subamendment the analyst would bring back a little briefing of each of these witnesses, which she's just offered to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That doesn't have to be a subamendment. It could just be a request.

Ms. Damoff.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

If the analyst could also...some of these subjects, if there are experts that you know of out there, I don't think we could possibly capture everything in a day, and your depth of knowledge is probably better than all of ours. I know you've filled in holes, but if you look at a certain issue and say they should consider that, then the subcommittee can look at that list, yours and all the submitted ones, and pair it down from what we had.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Did I hear you request that you want the analyst at the steering committee?

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

No, but she has the list and she can look to see where we have holes and add some.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right. The separate request is that you're going to do a briefing. Do you understand what you're doing?

[Laura Munn-Rivard]

Yes, my understanding is that I am to fill in any holes in terms of missing witnesses that are key to the areas that are described in the work plan, and then also bring biographies and descriptions of the organizations and individuals.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's excellent. All right.

Do I understand that the subamendment is withdrawn?

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

It's withdrawn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's good.

Ms. Harder.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Ruby, I have a friendly amendment to make to the original motion. Help me if this is beneficial or not. I'm wondering if you guys as a subcommittee have to meet and then finalize this work plan, then there wasn't a deadline attached to your motion. I'm just wondering if we should put one there, and I'm wondering if it would be agreeable to choose March 21 as our first Monday back as a sitting day.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

In my motion, I mentioned any date that we can all agree on. But before the steering committee would meet, they would need to have and we need to give the analyst enough time to...so within a week would probably be good.

This is just initial witnesses. I'd like to clarify that obviously as our work progresses, no one is precluded from coming up with other wonderful witnesses who can assist us in the study. This is just to get the ball rolling.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Can you do the request within a week?

[Laura Munn-Rivard]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Excellent, so that's good.

That doesn't need to be an amendment to the amendment.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I'm just trying to nail down a concrete date by which you want us to submit any further witnesses.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

It's Thursday. Wasn't that in there?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That was not in there. There's no closed door when you can stop coming up with witnesses because as you start interviewing people, you may decide to take a different path.