He's getting paid.
Evidence of meeting #20 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ombudsman.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #20 for Veterans Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was ombudsman.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
I understand he's getting paid for it, but I know some of our witnesses didn't exactly fill in all the boxes. But that's life.
Mr. Sweet.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
To add to that point, not to make it rocket science, but I think we should have our comments on there as well, just like what was mentioned.
I wanted to echo that I feel exactly as Mr.Stoffer does.
I think the other thing too is that as we put this together, the most powerful thing we can do for veterans is to have a unanimous report. We should really look at it and all of us should ask, is there anything I need to die on in this case to make sure we come up with a concise, crisp, clear report from all the evidence we've heard and be unanimous so that we can demonstrate that we want to get this done. And we should do all the head banging that's required in camera so that we can produce a report that's unanimous.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
I can't believe she left. I can't wait to get the transcript. I'm sure I heard her say that her opinion didn't matter.
5:15 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
Very quickly, I want to make one point. I'm sorry if I didn't catch this right, and I don't mean to say anybody said this, but this is the committee's report. We make a report and Veterans Affairs will look at it afterwards. We don't want them telling us what to put in our report. I don't mean to put those words in anybody's mouth, but we have to be very strong on that if we want to get to what David said. This is our report. They'll come and tell us what the problems are afterwards. That's what they get paid to do.
We can do it very quickly. If we all get our homework done and Michel gets it to us, we can make some of these decisions very quickly. As I said, there's no hill to die on here. The department will tell us their problems, but we want to stay clear. This has to be the committee's if we're going to get it unanimous.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
I also want to add that when I laid out my feelings on this, there was no premeditation. I wasn't influenced by anybody in terms of what I said. That was straight off the cuff.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Brent St. Denis Liberal Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON
Ditto to what you said. To repeat it, Rob, I take what you did in the most positive light, which was to get us started, which you did. That's a good thing.
As David said, it's not rocket science, and the witnesses did not, in the main, comment on any of these points. I don't think we want to go back and say, well, here are a bunch of questions.
They want us to do something. We use our judgment, come up with a consensus report. They will appreciate more that we did it quickly, and they'll forgive us a few little things around the edges. They'll be happier with that than if we get so wrapped up in making it perfect that we get nothing. I'll repeat what I said a long time ago: let's not let perfection be the enemy of the good.
Is there an equivalent
in French for that?
5:20 p.m.
Bloc
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Roger Valley Liberal Kenora, ON
We were unanimous while you were gone, by the way. The report's done.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
We have only a couple of pages of that template.
Michel, do you want to make sure we all have those questions, and we can get our responses to you. As I mentioned, if we could get our responses as well as the testimony all in one spreadsheet.
5:20 p.m.
Committee Researcher
The document was distributed early in November. It has been passed to the committee already, but we can send it. Then a spreadsheet will be produced before the report.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
David Sweet Conservative Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON
But you'll take our response to that and put it—
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rob Anders
The clerk was just mentioning that, if the committee wants, he can send it again.
I'm going to call the meeting adjourned then. We still have eight minutes to spare. We'll see you on Monday.
