Transport Committee on Dec. 7th, 2010

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Could we have a copy of the motion, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

It's been on notice of motion for the last.... This is the second one.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

That was for the benefit of Mr. Bellavance, who wasn't at committee.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

The government's position on accountability and full disclosure is fairly evident from our legislation. I'm wondering if Mr. McCallum could extend it to thirty days instead of five, or thereabouts, just to make it a reasonable timeframe. I think five days is a little bit unreasonable.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Maybe ten or fifteen days....

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

We'd go for ten.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Would you consider fifteen, Mr. McCallum?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Jean is suggesting fifteen days, Mr. McCallum.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Well, ten days would put us into the break, so I guess the issue is whether the clerk can receive the information and distribute it to us during the break.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

I'm advised that if the information is forwarded to the clerk it will be distributed to the members as soon as we get it.

[Sukh Dhaliwal, Liberal, Newton—North Delta, BC]

We're happy with fifteen. Give them fifteen. That's fine. We want to enjoy the Christmas....

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

All right, fifteen.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I can see there's leverage on that side.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Okay, so with agreement we'll change the last line from five days to fifteen days.

Is everybody in agreement with that?

Mr. McCallum.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

It should be fifteen calendar days, not working days.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Is everybody okay with that?

Do you have a question, Mr. Bevington?

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

I'm kind of perplexed by having the information come out in fifteen calendar days. That's in the middle of Christmas. Shouldn't it be by the next committee meeting after Christmas?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

That's really the issue. I just want to make sure.... On the accountability and the disclosure, I think there's no question it should be done, if Mr. McCallum wants. The question is, really, that we're going to demand this of the bureaucracy, to provide this. I'm sure there are going to be five people working around the clock trying to find this stuff in the first place, but I don't know exactly how they work it. But we're not going to be looking at it until February. You can't even ask questions on it in the House until February. So the relevance of getting it in fifteen days is to send it to newspapers during Christmas. They're going to publish this instead of Santa Claus on December 25, I'm sure.

I just don't see the relevance of providing it by that timeframe and putting that onerous obligation on the department. We're not going to vote against it; we're going to abstain. So it's whatever the opposition thinks is reasonable for people who work for us.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Mr. McCallum.

[John McCallum, Liberal, Markham—Unionville, ON]

Look, I've said fifteen days in order to try to be reasonable. I don't think it's a massive amount of work. If they don't want to work through Christmas, then do it in eight days. I don't think it is unreasonable. We think it is relevant. Therefore I'm not going to compromise further, beyond fifteen calendar days.

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

The motion is on the floor that we--

[Dennis Bevington, NDP, Western Arctic, NT]

We're not voting on the amendment, then, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Merv Tweed]

Yes, I guess we will. We'll vote on the amendment to extend it from five to fifteen calendar days.

(Amendment agreed to)

Now I'll move to the motion as amended.

(Motion as amended agreed to)

Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

There's one further item of business, and I did want to talk to the committee about this. We finished up Bill C-42 a little bit early. What I'm proposing is that we consider moving immediately to Bill S-5, which has now been referred to our committee.

It's a very small bill. I know some of you are aware of it already. It's a bill, just one amendment, that will allow Transport Canada and Environment Canada to become compliant with NAFTA, which as of January 2009 required that Canada allow importation of Mexican vehicles that are ten years old or older. Right now it can't be done, believe it or not, so Canadians who go down to Mexico can't import them. What we're asking is to bring it to the committee. It should take no more than half an hour to an hour.

What I'm proposing is that we could bring it up on Thursday, tentatively based on whether or not you agree to it after you get your briefing. I would provide briefings in relation to it or ask the department to provide briefings to all the people interested. Once you get the deck on it you're going to see it's very small and very quick.

We could have this done and referred to the House before the break. What I'm proposing is that we keep Thursday open for this bill, and then we could have another bill to the House before Christmas. All of you would receive a briefing between now and then. I would get a deck to you, first of all, and you'll see it's quite small. Then if you want a briefing by the department, I would get that arranged before Thursday.