Transport Committee on June 8th, 2017

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We have two next week and two the following week.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK]

We definitely do have time to deal with the aviation study in the three meetings that would follow a meeting with the minister and his departmental officials. Again, for the purposes of having something on the schedule, not knowing whether or not we're going to be able to deal with the report on Tuesday, I think this makes the most sense given the sense of urgency that I know we are feeling based on what we are hearing back from our producers and other stakeholders with regard to Bill C-49—at least with regard to those measures that are due to sunset in August.

I can't stress enough how much I really do think we should go ahead with that initial meeting with the minister and his departmental officials on Tuesday and look at spending the rest of this session closing the loop on the aviation study until we rise on the 23rd.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

We don't know that we will be here until the 23rd, and I think any of the members who have been here for some time know that once a lot of legislation gets through very quickly, the House can decide it's going to shut down. Especially in those last two meetings, which would have been on the Tuesday and the Thursday if we were to go to the 23rd, knowing the way the House functions—it's up and down and we're here and we have votes—it becomes pretty erratic, so I don't know that we'd get anything done those last two weeks.

I'm going to put the suggestion on the floor that we—

Sorry, Mr. Iacono.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

We're dealing with a lot of uncertainty here. We don't know if the minister is available for an hour or two hours. We don't know if the report is going to be ready on Tuesday. We have agreed to having the minister come. Let him tell us if his availability is for an hour or two, and at the same time we'll also have to decide if we have time to start on Tuesday, whether or not the report is ready. We have the recommendations as I suggested, so I think everything is on the table, and I guess we'll have to wait for these gentlemen to finish their work and for the minister to respond, and we have no objection to that.

We need to be able to be clear so that there is no misunderstanding next week, because, as my colleague was saying, there are a lot of discussions. I agree with him. He is confused, and so am I, so we want to just clarify that. We have to ask the minister to see if he's available to come, and if he's not, then we're going to go back to the original plan, which was to look at the recommendations or the report, whichever of the two is ready to start as of Tuesday.

I'll also be clear that, if the drafting has been sent to us before 6 o'clock, as you mentioned, then we can resume that on Tuesday, if the minister is not available to come on Tuesday.

Is that clear?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Is everybody okay with that?

Is the clerk clear on that?

Mr. Berthold.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

To signal our interest and extend a formal invitation to the minister, I move that the committee formally invite the minister to appear in order to discuss Bill C-49.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

That's fine. Have you given us notice prior to—

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

No. We are in committee business—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

—so we don't need a motion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Yes, we do.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

In committee business?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I am informed by our clerk that we do.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Is it the will of all the members of the committee to agree to invite the minister for Tuesday?

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I believe we just—

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I think we were clear in our agreement, so I don't think we really need to go to a motion. We too want to have the minister here to clarify stuff. As the chair has mentioned, the minister is going to be here also in September. We too want to have him here.

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

That was just to formalize it, but that's okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

It's all right.

Mr. Aubin.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

I just want to make sure I understand correctly.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

Before discussing the motion, we had what I saw as a gentleman's agreement. I'm not sure whether the motion mentions one or two hours for the minister's appearance or whether it gives us the same flexibility as the one we had before.

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

There's not much point to the motion since we all agree on inviting the minister.

[Robert Aubin, NDP, Trois-Rivières, QC]

But are we going to spend one or two hours with him? What's next?

[Luc Berthold, Conservative, Mégantic—L'Érable, QC]

Madam Chair—

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I don't think it's up to us to decide. We'd certainly like to have him for two hours, but if he's not available—