Veterans Affairs Committee on Nov. 15th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Sweet.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

Mr. Chairman, I certainly sympathize with Mr. Perron. In my own case as well, I've come from a committee that met for two hours prior to this. That makes it quite a stretch, even for someone who does not have physical challenges like Mr. Perron. I'd suggest, if we are going to meet at this time, that we have lunch brought in for meetings that span the eleven to one o'clock timeframe.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

My thoughts on it would be that I certainly prefer the meeting time of 11 a.m. as opposed to 9 a.m. Of course, we would love to have the veterans room. I think for some of the committee members who enjoy smoke breaks and that type of thing, it's a more convenient location, and it has been named as the veterans affairs room. Of course, it would all be good, but it may be very difficult to arrange.

We may have to take a vote on this, but I'm guessing that if we are forced to meet from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., we're probably better off to actually bring in lunches, and I'm certainly sympathetic to the idea they be diabetic friendly and high protein, hopefully. That's my thinking.

Monsieur Gaudet.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

I agree completely with my friend David. It makes no sense to go to lunch at 1:00 p.m. because some members have other commitments and we have to get ready for question period. That would mean having lunch at 1:30 p.m. That makes no sense either, especially if breakfast was at 7:30 a.m.

I would be in favour of having a full lunch at all our meetings. That's it. I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I'm certainly not fighting you on it.

Ms. Hinton and then Mr. Shipley.

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

I'm also very sympathetic toward your needs. I don't think that's a request. It has to happen; you have to eat. David has the same kind of issue. Unlike some reasons for having meals brought in, I think these are very legitimate reasons, and I think it would probably serve all of us on this committee well to make certain that we do eat. As was mentioned, I also go to another meeting at one o'clock, so I would be going from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. with no meal break. That is kind of ridiculous. So I don't have a problem with that at all.

One thing I do have a problem with, and I'm sure that one of my other colleagues will have an equally serious problem with it, is that I'm really disappointed to hear we can't meet in the veterans room after going through the paces of having it named the veterans room. I'm not certain what can be done about that, but I would certainly like to look into the possibility of changing it.

It's booked every Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 11, is that the problem?

[A voice]

No, from 11 to 1.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I have some understanding of this, but I think the clerk probably has it clear. I believe it involves us going to all of our whips and coordinating all the whips to get a change.

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

That's a challenge in itself, but maybe we could do it.

[The Clerk]

What happens is that procedure and House affairs sits at the same time as us. They always sit from 11 to 1. They don't change like we do. The reason for that is that the procedure and House affairs committee requires the presence of the whips of every party and they have to be in close proximity to the House. That's why they sit in room 112 north.

There are only three committee rooms in the Centre Block, those upstairs on the second floor, which are televised rooms. They're always used for committees that bring in a minister and things like that. Therefore, when we came into this block, we came into confrontation with that arrangement and they have precedence over us. It's something that was already established before we named it the veterans room. It's not up to me to decide. It is really up to the whips to decide what to do with this. I would suggest to all the members to talk to their whips about it and hopefully work something out. They will advise me after that.

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

So that I'm clear on this, what's the option? Do we go back to meeting at 9 a.m., or would we be interfering then with the procedure and House affairs committee?

[The Clerk]

No. The Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs only sits from 11 to 1, which is our block. There are other blocks, and I have the committee block schedule. If you would like, I can hand those out to all the members so they can see what the different options are.

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

If we went back to the original schedule that started at 9, we would eliminate the need to bring in meals, we would accommodate all of our members who have health issues who require a meal, and we would be back down in the veterans room, and all that would be necessary would to be to move to 9. If I'm hearing you correctly, that room is not booked at 9 a.m. That's the easy solution.

[The Clerk]

That's right.

There is a problem with that. Some other members sit from 9 to 11 on other committees, and that is the case for Mr. Sweet and Mr. Shipley.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Shipley, and then Mr. Perron.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

The unfortunate part is not being in the room, but I have another standing committee at nine in the morning, as perhaps a number of us do, and I don't know how we work around that. If we do stay with it, and I don't have an issue staying with it, other than if we aren't in that room at this time, maybe another time it will change.... If we're going to have a lunch, just a sandwich or something to get us through is all that would really be necessary to bring in. It is a little intimidating when we have witnesses and we're munching away and they aren't. I was on another committee where they have it, but I guess that's just standard process to go through.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Mr. Perron, and then Mr. Valley.

[Gilles-A. Perron, Bloc, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

As for the Veterans Room, I think the solution is easy. We ask our whips to have their meetings in room 356-S on the 3 ^rdfloor of the Centre Block. It is quite close, and all of their offices are on the 4^th, 5^thand 6 ^th floors. The room is quite big too: the Bloc Québécois uses it every day around 1:00 p.m. for question period.

Why not lean on our whips to move to room 356-S? The room is free, and it is used starting at 1:00 p.m. by Bloc Québécois members who meet there before question period. So we could ask them to move there and we could go back to room 112-N . I can say to Mr. Guimond that we are sorry, but he has to move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I'm not opposed to that. It's a question of getting the whips in line. We'll see where that goes.

Mr. Valley.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

In January we're going to be going to a new time slot anyway, so let's just live with this for now.

[An hon. member]

Yes, it's four weeks, that's all.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

It's four weeks. We'll struggle through this room, and let's go.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay.

I sense that unless we get some major breakthrough on behalf of the whips wanting to accommodate, I think we're where we are in terms of time slot and room-wise.

Given the parameters we have, should we be meeting in this location at this time, etc., then we'll arrange for meals. Is that fair?

High protein, low fat, low sugar.

[A voice]

Is that in the motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Yes, it's very important.

We'll just leave the motion as the motion, but I think we've had a clear understanding and a talk about it, so the clerk, as authorized, understands.

That's the motion, it was moved by Mr. Stoffer, and he said he was okay with it and everything else before he had to...whatever. Is there any other discussion on it?

All those in favour of “Working Meals” as it's worded?

(Motion agreed to)