Veterans Affairs Committee on Dec. 13th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

They do sometimes, yes. It is honestly a haphazard situation in the sense that sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. The national defence committee, for example, got approved for a budget that was substantially larger than ours, etc. The clerk was there. He knows well what happened.

[Roger Valley, Liberal, Kenora, ON]

I want you to take the message back, or I'll deliver it myself, that I take a bit of offence at them telling us what we're going to do and not do when we're dealing inside our mandate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I understand. I appreciate that one hundred percent, Mr. Valley. I ask you to express that to Ms. Ratansi.

I was not impressed.

Mr. Shipley.

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

I agree. We've prioritized within Canada the areas for veterans. I don't know if there is some sort of an appeal. If we had put money out on other ventures and were close to our budget or had gone beyond it, but we actually haven't.... And in fact we've had discussions around here about being concerned about maintaining our budget, and I think that comes from all sides, quite honestly.

I'm a little disappointed because we had put together a program all of us agreed on that would take us to the pertinent places in Canada to get the best knowledge we could from our veterans. Splitting it up serves a purpose. I just don't think it serves a very good purpose in terms of getting a unified scenario across Canada, because veterans come from different parts of the country. They go with different initiatives sometimes, and they come back into a different part of the country that may have a different society and culture, different health, different whatever. When you go up to Mr. Valley's area, it's obviously remote, as compared to coming back into someplace close to Montreal, where it is a large urban area and those services are much more accessible.

I don't know what the route is, Mr. Chairman. I don't know if we could get another kick at the can, so to speak. I guess we could speak to some of our colleagues.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Just to let you know--and forgive me, I was just talking to the clerk--there was a female member of the Liberal caucus who sits on the subcommittee, if you will, that deals with the budgeting particularly of the Liaison Committee. I believe it was Ms. Robillard, and she was very supportive, very reasonable, and very understanding that the committee as a whole would benefit from seeing each of these different locations, and she saw the value in travelling as a group. She was very supportive. As I said, the two individuals who I mentioned were difficult.

Mr. St. Denis.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Just to follow on Bev's comments, and Roger's, I'm not sure if we can do it today or whether we have enough to do it today, but if we agreed to resubmit it just as it was and then we will do the due diligence and arm-twisting that we need to do, I don't see why we can't resubmit.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I'm perfectly amenable to that. Just make sure you pigeonhole Ms. Ratansi.

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

Could I just move a motion, that the budget for the travel, non-Petawawa, non-Valcartier, the third and fourth pieces of the travel, the western and eastern portions of the travel, be resubmitted as originally drafted?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

The motion is received.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Griffis is just leaving. He wants to say a formal goodbye.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. Yes.

[Ronald Griffis]

On behalf of our association, thank you for inviting us here today to speak.

On behalf of the association, we wish all a merry Christmas, a happy new year, and a prosperous new year.

See what you can do about getting the peacekeepers act passed for August 9, please, and thank you.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Fair enough. Merry Christmas.

Mr. Sweet, I don't know if I'm recognizing you next, sir, but—

[Brent St. Denis, Liberal, Algoma—Manitoulin—Kapuskasing, ON]

I just moved a motion that we resubmit the budget for the east and west travel as originally drafted.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. Fair enough. I think it's understood. Do we need a vote on it, really?

Mr. Sweet, I think I know where you're going to go with this one anyway. Carry on.

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

I communicated directly to you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Yes, you did.

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

And I will vote in favour of that motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

Okay. Fair enough.

[Peter Stoffer, NDP, Sackville—Eastern Shore, NS]

I absolutely agree with it, Mr. Chairman. There is just one slight alteration. I don't know if it should be done in the committee or with the clerk. If we do go to Shearwater, Greenwood is just down the road, and I know Mr. Griffis and a couple of his folks from the Greenwood area would probably come down to visit with us. If there's any additional lunch cost there, maybe we could include that in there. It's only an hour away.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

I should think we would probably be able to accommodate that, Mr. Stoffer. The clerk is the master of our destiny in these things, so let him know.

We've had a discussion on that then.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Rob Anders]

That's carried unanimously.

At that, I say merry Christmas, adieu, and we're off to the vote.

The meeting is adjourned.