Veterans Affairs Committee on April 26th, 2007

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

I have just a comment.

This committee decides its own destiny, and as I said to you earlier in the afternoon, we're going to deal with Mr. St. Denis' bill because it takes precedence. We have to deal with it. So I'm very much in favour of that. I'm very much in favour of listening to witnesses.

I want to get to the health care review. Dr. Marshall just told us how important it is, and I'm wondering if you think bringing the minister takes precedence over starting this health care review. I'm just looking for what direction you want to go in, because when we set this agenda at the beginning of the year, we had some very specific items we were going to deal with, and we've not yet got to the health care review.

So are we interested, still, in going to the health care review, or do we want to go down a different road? I'm just looking for direction from you.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

I take direction from what Dr. Marshall said, and I see it very clearly. He's saying there's no time for extensive debate. There should be some action on this report.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

That's exactly what I just said.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

So the first thing we'd like to ask the minister is what kind of action he has taken on the report. I think it's important to get him here.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

That wasn't why you were asking to have the minister come.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

I asked to have the minister come, and there can be any number of reasons. We hadn't discussed this at that point. If we're done with the bill, there's no reason the minister can't be asked to come. If his schedule doesn't allow it, that's fine, he'll tell us that. But if we don't have anything else for Thursday, I think it would be important to have him in front of us.

[Betty Hinton, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

So do you want to talk to him about health care? Is that what you're suggesting?

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

We'll decide that on Tuesday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I imagine this debate will probably erupt again at the end of Tuesday's meeting. Then, once again we'll take a tally of what the numbers are on the various sides. We have some vociferous voices on either side, and we'll see where it goes.

The meeting is adjourned.