Evidence of meeting #6 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 video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
“As soon as possible”.... We'll do the amendment first.
Thank you, Mr. Berthold.
(Amendment agreed to)
On the amended motion, are there any questions or comments?
(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Thank you.
Mr. Bachrach.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I heard from one person that they were frustrated by the inability to get the blues from our meetings soon afterwards. Perhaps I didn't follow along as closely as I should have when we moved the routine motions at the beginning, around the blues, but I think it warrants a conversation about whether we want to amend those or put forward another routine motion that would make those available in a more timely manner.
The only other option is to listen to the audio, I believe, which takes a long time. You can't really do a word search on an audio file.
I don't know if I could put that forward verbally as a motion. I move that we make the blues available as soon as possible for members of the public after our committee meetings.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Are there any questions or comments on that, members?
The only concern I have is that the blues aren't always accurate.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Once they go to the public and they're not accurate and you catch that—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
—and you then amend it based on the inaccuracy, it's out in the public already. That's the only concern that I have.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I understand that, Mr. Chair. I believe, because we have the audio out there already, people have a way of obtaining what happened at the meeting, and that's a risk, but I think we need to balance that with our objective of transparency and providing the public with access to our proceedings.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
The audio will be accurate. It's the blues that sometimes aren't accurate—the written version.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
What people think I said isn't necessarily what I meant.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
I share the concerns regarding the accuracy of it, because it's very easy to cut and paste the transcripts, and I have done it. Sometimes it's a lot easier to just post that on social media and then that becomes the truth that's out there.
I don't know if this is a question for PROC with regard to decisions are being made across the House rather than just our committee. Since there are only a few minutes left, maybe this is something that we can take back to our whips and House leaders to discuss, rather than making a decision right now, because if a decision were made right now, I'd be against it, but I'm happy to take it back to our House leaders.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Chair, if I may say, it's a fair comment. What was communicated to me by this person was that, in her opinion, the other committees make the blues more readily available than ours does. Perhaps the clerk could comment on that. If that's indeed the case, I don't see any reason why our committee should make information less accessible than other committees do.
The Clerk
You guys love to make me speak. I prefer to be seen and not heard.
It's completely a committee cultural thing. Some committees readily share them and some don't. It's entirely at your discretion what you choose to do. Some committees have special lists.
I will do whatever it the committee pleases do on this.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Once again, my concern is this. The audio will be very, very accurate. You can't manipulate it; you can't make a mistake on audio; it's you speaking. However, when the blues come out, they can be inaccurate. I've sometimes found—not many times, but sometimes—a word and/or sentence can be wrong, so you fix it. Then, of course, it gets repaired and goes into the record.
Again, my concern is that the written part of it—and people can still hear the audio, which is accurate—sometimes being inaccurate, which can fall into the wrong hands. That's my concern.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I don't want to belabour the point, Mr. Chair. Perhaps members of the committee are of different minds on this. I offer it as a motion, and I think we can vote on it. If it passes, it passes; and if it's defeated, it's defeated. I'm happy either way.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
I echo Mr. Bittle's comment. I think this is something that we can take back to our individual parties and go from there. I would urge our new colleagues who are around the table to ensure that they're always checking the blues, because I have had the media using completely inaccurate quotes of my speeches. I suffer from mumble mouth, apparently, and I'm not clear, but you should always be checking it.
I agree with Mr. Bachrach that the blues should be made readily available, but we should have an opportunity, or our office should have an opportunity, to at least go through them and make sure that they're accurate. That's my only concern.
I think that we should take this back. It's 6 o'clock, so I'll leave it to you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
—instead of voting on it? That's fine, Mr. Bachrach.
Okay, Mr. Baldinelli.
Conservative
Tony Baldinelli Conservative Niagara Falls, ON
I have just a quick question as a newbie. How quickly do the audio transcripts get posted, and how quickly do we get copies of the Hansard transcript?