Evidence of meeting #9 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bnsf.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Knowing that we'll have Bill C-10 coming to us very quickly, and in order to continue to be as efficient as we have been with our time so far, can I suggest that committee members submit their witness lists by this coming Friday?
I'm sorry, Mr. Fraser. I will get to you.
Second, I suggest that we direct the clerk to invite the minister and departmental officials to come before committee at the first meeting on Bill C-10. This way, if it comes on Thursday, we'll still have a motion that we can get all of this started as soon we come back on May 2. Is everybody in agreement?
We'll give direction to the clerk to notify the minister that we'd like to see him at our first opportunity when we're dealing with Bill C-10 and that the committee members will submit by this coming Friday a list of any witnesses that they would like to have come before committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
I'm asking the committee.
Mr. Fraser, I didn't get back to you yet. I'm sorry.
Liberal
Sean Fraser Liberal Central Nova, NS
Chair, I was going to speak to the need for efficiency in inviting the minister, which I think you've covered.
On the question of going later, given that we have a jam-packed schedule, that there's a need to turn this around quickly, and that we have an absence of time blocks, I would rather extend into the evening an extra hour or two, if we need to, while we're already here, rather than trying to find another time slot that's available in everyone's schedules.
I'm open to suggestions of the group, of course, but if you're seeking our availability, that would be my preference.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I know that my colleagues and I have other committees that we have a commitment to right after this committee meeting every Monday, so we're not able to stay late on a Monday.
I guess my suggestion would be that since we've been given four hours a week to get our committee business done, we just take the meetings we need rather than trying to extend the meeting times, because it then gets into a lot of other scheduling issues that we have.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
It's very difficult. It's just a question of how many meetings we plan to have on Bill C-10.
I was just looking for a possible way for all of us to try to expedite it and to get back to the rail study and get it finished.
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I think that certainly we're going to want to hear from Montreal, from Mississauga, and from Winnipeg. We're going to want to hear from three municipalities and the workers in those maintenance yards. We're also going to want to hear from the officials, so I would say that there would be four meetings at least. We need to hear from the witnesses, and then we have to do the line-by-line.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
If everything is ready for May 2 when we come back from the break week, we have meetings on May 2, 4, 9, and 11. That would be four meetings. On May 16 we could do the clause-by-clause and then get back to the rail study.
Mr. Badawey.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
On that, my concern is that we get through this so that we meet the time frame of the minister. If he's going to set a time frame and we miss it, that's not productive.
That said, if Mondays are problem for you and your colleagues, Kelly, is there a possibility that Wednesdays would work?
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
I think Wednesday could work. At this point in time, I know that Mondays don't.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
Is it the feeling of the committee that the clerk should try to schedule some additional witnesses for the Wednesday night meeting so that we can complete the agenda sooner rather than later? How many meetings should we have, then? Ms. Duncan suggested four. That would wrap it up on the 11th, and then we would have clause-by-clause on the 16th. We could use the Wednesday night, both on the 4th and the 11th, for extensions if necessary to accommodate the witnesses. Would that be all right? Is everybody in agreement with that?
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
I'd like to suggest, Madam Chair, that we stop being so cut and dried about the amount of days. We're going to for sure want to hear from representatives of those three cities, and there may be additional people who'll be contracting the clerk and saying they want to be heard on this. I would say a minimum of four days, because if people really want to be heard on this bill, I don't think we should be saying, no, we only set aside four days. That's my suggestion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We're certainly prepared to stay over and above our regular time. We've got two Wednesday evenings here when we could stay until whatever time was necessary. Let's see what kind of a response we also get. If we could move this along, if we could do clause-by-clause on the 16th, then we could get back on our rail study and still fit in our trip to Lac-Mégantic and get a report into the House by the beginning of June. We can still do all of these things, we just have to be tight and move the agenda along.
All right? If everybody's more or less okay with that, the clerk will use Wednesday evening—
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
If the witnesses are willing to stay later. I don't think we can presume that.
Liberal
NDP
Linda Duncan NDP Edmonton Strathcona, AB
If they're coming from Manitoba it's okay because it's earlier, but we can't presume that witnesses are willing to testify—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We'll be using our teleconference abilities. Anybody who can't come can communicate with us by sending us a brief.
We'll do everything we can, Mr. Clerk. We'll try to be as accommodating as possible, because it is important that we make sure that everybody is heard.
Mr. Berthold.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Madam Chair, at our first meeting in May, you could take a few minutes to update us on those discussions. It would be a matter of figuring out whether we had enough time to hold four meetings. We would just have to see where we were at and determine whether an extra meeting was needed. We could give ourselves that flexibility.