Evidence of meeting #3 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 aircraft.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Liberal
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
It is:
That, when the Minister of Transport and the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities appear before the committee on Thursday, February 27, 2020, on the subject of their respective mandate letters, that they also appear on the topic of the supplementary estimates (B) that has been referred to the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Rogers.
Are there any questions or comments?
Mr. Berthold.
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Before I begin, I would like some clarification from the clerk regarding the ministers' appearance on Thursday.
Are we receiving the Minister of Infrastructure and Communities for one hour and then the Minister of Transport for one hour?
Conservative
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Okay. Each minister will therefore have one hour.
Mr. Rogers, with all due respect, I think that the ministers' mandate letters are a very important aspect of what Canadians expect from them. Unfortunately, we didn't have the time to talk about that previously because the committees hadn't convened yet. I think we should focus on the mandate letters for now.
Usually, when we talk about supplementary estimates, we call on officials to be present. Unfortunately, if we call on the officials at the same time as the ministers, we won't have enough time to talk about the mandate letters. I prefer that we focus on their mandate letters, in other words the political component, when they visit. Then we could invite the ministers and departmental representatives to talk about the supplementary estimates and other matters that might be raised.
If we do what you are proposing, we will unfortunately not have enough time to question the ministers on their mandate letters. I therefore cannot support this motion.
Liberal
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I appreciate and understand your concern, Mr. Berthold—
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
I have very similar concerns. This is an opportunity to really delve into the mandate letter, which covers a number of different areas. I would think that the minister himself would be very happy to spend all of his time talking about what he's been asked to work on, and I also certainly never have been on a committee where it's not important to have the minister back on the estimates when they are around, so I'm a bit surprised by this, in fact.
I think the minister himself would be proud to talk about what he's working on.
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
Just from a practicality perspective, I'm looking at the schedule, and we very quickly got the ministers to agree to this particular meeting on Thursday. I'm not so sure what their schedules will be in the future, but we were just thinking, from the perspective of that factor, it might be an opportunity to ask some questions on supplementary estimates.
Of course, we are at the wishes of the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Great, thank you.
Are there further questions or comments?
Ms. Block.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
I'm just going to ask a question to clarify something in my own mind. When do they have to be deemed reported?
Conservative
The Clerk
It is March 10, but the last supply day is usually three days before that or the end of the supply period, so if the last supply day or the last opposition day takes place sometime in that week, then it would be three days prior to that, but we don't yet know when that day will be.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you. It's very tight.
Are there further questions or comments?
It's just trying to do the math in terms of scheduling the work we have ahead of us, and now with three days in advance of the March 10 deadline, it's very difficult to squeeze all this in.
Mr. Bittle.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I'd like to echo squeezing all this in and the difficulties therein. Additionally, there would be an expectation that the minister appear with respect to the study we are currently engaged in, and so to have the minister here three successive times is a lot to ask. We're happy to put up the officials and make it a separate day, if it would be a preference for the opposition to carve out a date on which officials can be questioned with respect to the estimates, a separate date, but this was a priority study for the Conservatives working on that. The minister will appear on that.
There's a priority also for the Conservatives that the minister appear on the mandate letter quickly, and we were able to make that happen as well.
I'm not sure we can fit all of that in with respect to the minister's schedule.