Veterans Affairs Committee on Feb. 18th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Good morning, everybody. Thanks for coming.

I hope everybody got a chance to read a report that I had J.R. send out. At a high level looking out, we probably have 24 meetings between now and the end of June, including today's meeting. We have to come up with some type of work plan.

We've asked for the minister to come. We'll probably have the minister, or the parliamentary secretary, MP McCrimmon, here for one or two meetings. We're going to need to have budget meetings, which probably would take maybe four meetings. If we drill down, I'm looking at probably plus or minus 18 meetings that are open moving forward—if that's what everybody is thinking or if anybody has it added up—before the end of June. If we take the session to the end, I think it's around the 20th.

Basically, fiscal oversight and budgetary review is one of the core functions of this committee, and that will probably consist of at least four meetings. Even if we were to say five or six meetings, and with the meetings with the minister, I'm guessing that's around 15 meetings.

We did set up the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure last week. Meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays are coming very quickly. If we had a goal.... Or if we could get to a subcommittee meeting before our next meeting, with today's information and email between now and when the subcommittee meets, we could come up with a work plan that we could discuss at our next meeting on Tuesday.

Is that overreaching or is it too far out for us? We have some great staff that maybe could help us on the subcommittee meeting also.

That's one that you also had to figure out, staff. We can meet whenever we want as the subcommittee.

From there, if there's discussion on that and where we want to go, there are some fine reports that we need to catch up on and read if we haven't got to them yet. We tie in with this report that we got yesterday on what the last committee recommended on some of the reports and what is in the minister's letter.

I'll open up the floor now for discussion.

Mr. Bratina.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I need to ask, Mr. Chair, whether there are any ethical conflict issues for members of this committee with regard to having members of the family in RCMP or the forces. I don't anticipate there are, but in orientation we were told to ask whenever....

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I guess I would defer that to you now, whether it be immediate family.... We could go through that, but on pecuniary, as to whether it would be financial, that one might be a stretch, I guess, unless it's without asking you directly....

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

My son is graduating from the RCMP in March.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

As the chair, I don't see that personally, but whether that would be the ethics....

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I can see it in money issues. We had this at city council, where a councillor had a son who was on the police department and we were voting on the budget. Other than that, I'm hoping that I can function normally without worrying about that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I guess you could express that conflict at whatever point in a meeting when we would be discussing.... That would probably be the recommendation.

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

If it's like my son, he would never give me anything anyway. It's all take, right?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Ms. Mathyssen.

[Irene Mathyssen, NDP, London—Fanshawe, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm very grateful to be a member of this committee. I look forward to some incredible work to be done and actions taken.

One of the concerns is that committees do wonderful work and then there's a delay. In keeping with that, I do have a notice of motion that I would like to distribute. I have it in French and English. It relates to the business of the committee. I think it's very much in keeping with our aspirations. If I could have that distributed, then perhaps we could proceed.

Thank you for your indulgence.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

This would be a notice that you're going to bring that motion to the next meeting. Is that correct?

We'll put that on the agenda for the next meeting.

Mr. Clarke.

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

This is in the same vein as what Mr. Bratina said. My brother is in the army and I have just left the Canadian armed forces. I do not know if this creates some ethical problem. I think we are reasonable adults and that we are able to set aside family preferences. I don't see a problem, but if there is one, I would like the public servants concerned to let me know.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I would have thought many veterans had sat on this committee. I really don't see it, unless there is one direct item that would pertain to that, and then you could express the conflict on that item.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Mr. Chair, might I suggest in terms of disclosure statements that we can make them to the chair or to the committee? I'm assuming the whips who have decided who will sit on these committees have thoroughly verified this information. As you know, I myself have two sons in the Canadian Forces. Should there be a vote that would impact our capacity, then we would just step out of that vote. We have disclosed it, and I think that's sufficient in terms of the Ethics Commissioner's requirements.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I think that's the reason a lot of you are on the committee, because of the experience of your families, and things like that.

Moving forward, do we want to have a discussion on the thoughts of committee members as to where we want to go, perhaps in relation to the document you got yesterday? Is there anything new we can discuss now, and then the subcommittee can meet? I know a couple of us are not on the subcommittee, but that being said, if we took your information today and we mixed it up, we could bring the work plan back for Tuesday, we hope, on our schedule. I think that meeting would probably be in camera to move forward. We could have a frank discussion on what we put forward, vote on the work plan, and then start moving forward.

Ms. Romanado.

[Sherry Romanado, Liberal, Longueuil—Charles-LeMoyne, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'm curious to see whether it would be possible for the committee to do outreach. We have quite a few new people here on the committee, and it might be beneficial for the committee to actually go out and speak to veterans across Canada. We have an idea of some issues that were brought back in the previous Parliament. I myself think it would be beneficial for the committee members to actually have that conversation across Canada to see the top-of-mind concerns and to come back to the committee and discuss them so we're starting with a clean slate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I spoke to the clerk earlier about outreach, in the sense of whether the committee as a whole should do outreach and move forward. We can split the committee and travel. I guess that's a discussion we could have for the work plan. Time goes fast, so if we're down to 19 meetings, it would be nice for us to be together on some of the high-level things and so on. Whether we can cover more ground in twos or threes is maybe something we can all think about. If we broke that down so we could travel twice as much ground, then we could report back, whether it was two, three, or four of us. I throw that out to everybody for their comments on that. Or do we all want to travel in a group?

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I received information that the Legion is meeting in Newfoundland June 9 to 12, or something like that. I felt that somebody should be representing the committee. I'm not sure if the entire group needs to go, but my feeling was that it would be good to have this committee represented at that event.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

I think we all got that letter. Was it 3,000 members or 300?

Do you remember, Mr. Clarke?

[Alupa Clarke, Conservative, Beauport—Limoilou, QC]

Madam Wagantall and I are already scheduled to be there. If anybody else wants to come, that would be fantastic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Neil Ellis]

Is Mr. Kitchen scheduled? I guess we're all going. The date on that was what?

[Bob Bratina, Liberal, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

It's June 9 to 12, or something like that.

[Robert Gordon Kitchen, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

It's Saturday to Tuesday.