Status of Women Committee on March 10th, 2016

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Thank you. We will now move to committee business.

As a result of the previous meeting, you will remember that people were to submit the names of witnesses for the motions we had agreed on. Those names are being circulated now. I would ask the parliamentary analyst to describe what it is you're receiving. Then we'll go from there.

[Laura Munn-Rivard, Committee Researcher]

A calendar is being circulated around the table right now. It shows the dates remaining until summer, as well as the initial list of witnesses that members of the committee sent to the clerk.

Then we have the work plan that the committee asked me to prepare. I will stress that this is a draft work plan. It can be completely changed. It can be wiped clean. It can be kept. Whatever the committee wills, I can do. I'm happy to follow the will of the committee on the work plan. This was just to give you a starting point and to give you some ideas.

You'll see at the very beginning of the work plan that meeting one and meeting two are dedicated to briefings from departments and agencies and other governmental bodies. Typically, when committees start studies, they want to hear from departments and agencies to see what programs exist, where we stand, and what existing data we have. This would be a good way to start, so I've suggested that at the very beginning.

Then I've organized it into thematic panels. Again, I'll stress that these panels always depend on the availability of witnesses. It does not always work out as it looks in the work plan. This is a tentative example. I started by dividing it into different types of victimization that young women and girls experience, as outlined in the motion. I moved on to groups at risk, which was also outlined in the motion. Finally, I divided it into responses, where witnesses may have an idea of how we can respond and perhaps create solutions and changes in response to the violence.

That's the initial work plan. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

This is a lot to absorb.

We have options. In the interest of trying to move the work of the committee forward, the really important thing is that on the schedule coming up, our next meetings are April 12 and 14.

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

What are we doing on March 24?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

On March 24 they will adopt a Friday schedule, because Good Friday is the next day....

No...? It's not confirmed yet...? Okay.

It's possible that we could have that one, and from there it would April 12 and 14. If we want to call witnesses—

Yes, Ms. Sahota.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Just following up on the overwhelmingness of all of this, there are a lot of witnesses to be called or to review. We were also only given about a day's notice to submit our witnesses.

As I walked here today, some other people came to my mind. I would request—of course everyone's free to submit witnesses—that this be an initial set of witnesses.

Maybe we could just take the order the analyst has used to compartmentalize. You can see in her first order that she's used some of the federal departments. Maybe we can agree that the federal departments are a good framework to start with. Then we could take some more time to go over the witnesses and to submit additional ones throughout.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Is there a motion?

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Yes. I would like to move that we accept the federal departments as our initial witnesses, perhaps on the 24th if anybody is available. The clerk could look into that, and then we could continue from there. I'm not going to set a date, but I hope we can agree on a date where we can submit initial witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Damoff.

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

To add to that, I wonder if we could take these witnesses and have our subcommittee compartmentalize them a little more. I know this morning I did that with Public Safety. We took 40 witnesses and whittled them down to 24.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Is that an amendment to the motion?

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

It's an amendment to the motion that the steering committee or whatever we're calling it take the rest of the witnesses.... Perhaps we could set next Thursday as a date to have additional witnesses. We could do that immediately upon our return.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

First we have to discuss—

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

Thank you for guiding us, Marilyn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

I'm getting better at this, as you may have noticed.

We first have to agree on the amendment. Is there support for it?

The amendment is that the rest of the work plan be referred to the steering committee, preferably at a meeting next Thursday—

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

As soon as we get back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

On the week that we return.

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

The steering committee can meet before the committee meets.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

We don't have to meet within the time slot. We can meet anytime. How about at the next available opportunity?

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

Yes.

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

When we come back.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

The amendment is that the rest of the work plan be referred to the steering committee, which should meet at the first available opportunity.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I'd like to add a subamendment to that. It's something that slipped my mind. I'm just going off the cuff right now.

If we could get some advice on other witnesses from our lovely analyst, that could also go to the steering committee and they could look at those in addition to the ones we submit.

[Laura Munn-Rivard]

If you look at the work plan—and I know you just got it—you will see I've added in brackets who proposed each witness.