Evidence of meeting #2 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was subcommittee.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Geneviève Gosselin  Committee Researcher
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Caroline Bosc

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON

I think it's a massive study. Vance, Tony and I know there are a large number of seafarers living in the Niagara region. From speaking with them, I know it is a huge issue. I don't know if limiting the study on something this important, especially when there seems to be support from the other side that this is important, that it's fundamental.... I'm interested to see what the solutions are, and limiting it might not get us to where we need to be.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Are there any further questions or comments?

Mr. Berthold.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

I would say we need at least four.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Are there any further questions?

Mr. Davidson.

It's your guy.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Scot Davidson Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Just in the spirit of things, I say we should split the difference. He's at four meetings and you're at six. Go with five and we're all happy. Carry on.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Are you guys okay with that?

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL

I'm good.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

You're good. Okay.

Are there any further questions?

Mr. Berthold.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC

If we start discussing the number of meetings now, we're going to do it for every motion. When the time comes to talk about the study, and we have the witness lists and the issues to be addressed, figuring out how many meetings we need will be easier.

Mr. Chair, before the meeting, you told me that motions could be amended along the way. Therefore, I suggest that we not waste any more time trying to decide whether we need three or four meetings. When we're making decisions about the study, the subcommittee will meet. Everyone will be asked for their list of proposed witnesses, and it will be possible to figure out how many meetings are necessary. As a committee, we can decide at that point.

Will we need four, six, seven or 12 meetings? I have no idea how many witnesses we might come up with, so I wouldn't spend too much time today on how many meetings we'll need. The subcommittee can make any necessary adjustments when the time comes.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

It does say in the motion, “in 6 meetings or fewer”.

Is everybody okay with that? We're not going to dig that deep into the weeds. We can just deal with that at the subcommittee. As I said earlier, a lot of it would depend on how many witnesses we bring forward. Do the math.

Is that fine?

Mr. Bachrach.

4:05 p.m.

NDP

Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC

I agree with the direction in which you're going, but for the purpose of clarity, can we simply take out the number of meetings from each of these motions and deal with that at the subcommittee once we have the number of witnesses in front of us?

Is that what's being suggested?

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Are there questions or comments on that?

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL

That would difficult for the clerk in terms of scheduling and trying to determine how many witnesses we could accommodate, if we don't suggest some type of parameters around the number of meetings.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Madam Clerk.

Am I throwing you in the hot seat?

4:05 p.m.

The Clerk

It's entirely at the discretion of the committee what they decide. I will make whatever the committee decides happen.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

I will leave it up to the committee.

Mr. Doherty.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC

I would suggest, for the sake of time, that we've all agreed around this table that it is going to be the purview of the committee. As needed, we can make amendments. It says six meetings or fewer, or four or fewer, or what have you. We can decide that along the way. We aren't being held at six meetings.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

That's fine.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC

We aren't being held at four meetings. Leave it as is.

We can go over and over this. Again, the clock is ticking. If we're trying to be a committee of action, let's just get going.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Okay.

Mr. Davidson, you had a comment.

4:05 p.m.

Conservative

Scot Davidson Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

No, I was going to go with Mr. Doherty's suggestion.

4:05 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Mr. Barsalou-Duval.

4:05 p.m.

Bloc

Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm having a bit of trouble following. Initially, it was six or fewer meetings. Then, four meetings were suggested. Then, it was four or more meetings. It was even suggested that we not indicate the number of meetings at all. Now, if I understand correctly, it's being suggested that we go back to six or fewer meetings.

I completely agree that the subcommittee will decide how many meetings to allocate to each study and at least propose a schedule based on priority. That's important, because it will make it a whole lot easier for us to see what is doable in the time we have once we have the full picture.

If, however, we go with the first option, in other words, six or fewer meetings, it will give the subcommittee some guidance. I do think that it could be helpful. We have to make a choice, but it might be a good idea to set the number of meetings to give us a general idea. We could also not set the number of meetings at all. I think choosing a number would give the subcommittee something to build on in terms of setting the priorities. It could be helpful.

I am nevertheless aware that there will be a desire around the table to deal with a certain number of issues. As such, if we go with four or more meetings, once the subcommittee starts prioritizing, we can come to a consensus and decide to hold eight meetings on a particular topic. At least, if we want to deal with a number of issues, with four or more meetings, we could have a discussion to determine whether that's enough to deal with all the issues we'd like to. Personally, I'm inclined to go with four meetings or more.

4:10 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey

Mr. Davidson.

4:10 p.m.

Conservative

Scot Davidson Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

No, I think we're reading too much into this. We're just trying to build a calendar that we can see.

There is a great thing we could add: an asterisk with “subject to change”. It's a great quote, “subject to change”.