Perfect.
Evidence of meeting #6 for Veterans Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #6 for Veterans Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you.
I see that Mr. Brassard has his hand up in the Zoom.
Go ahead, sir.
5:25 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Mine's a point of order, Mr. Chair, if you don't mind.
November 18th, 2020 / 5:30 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Madame Vaillancourt, I do apologize on behalf of our side for the line and tone of questioning, and I would hope that Mr. Casey would show the same indignation towards the Library of Parliament, which put a question in the briefing note today about the very subject that Madame Vaillancourt spoke about.
Second, Mr. Chair, I want to talk to you about the time. This is the second time that we've had a vote after QP. The votes are taking an excruciatingly long time to happen, which is cutting into the witness time. This is an important study, and it's the the second time we've started 45 minutes late, at a minimum. In my opinion, this does not give the witnesses enough time to answer many of the questions that we have as MPs related to this important backlog.
I'm asking you, Mr. Chair, for some consideration, and the committee as well to extend the time if we do have votes, because our meetings have been set now for Mondays and Wednesdays. That's twice this week that we've had votes after QP. Typically I expect that we're going to have other votes on at least the Wednesday, based on opposition day motions that may happen and supply days that may happen on Tuesday. We need to be fair to the witnesses who are giving their time freely to us at our request on these important matters. We need to deal with the time issue, Mr. Chair. I'm asking respectfully that we extend the time so that the witnesses can give the testimony that we need to hear.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Thank you, Mr. Brassard.
I do recognize that this timeslot puts us in a unique position in having this occur. If you recall, we had this discussion in committee business, and we actually directed the clerk to not have two panels for that exact reason. We are successfully getting through two solid rounds of questions. When we have panels of three organizations or less, we normally split it up into two one hour sessions.
I hear what you're saying. I think it is disruptive. It has to happen to somebody on committee. Some committees have to bear this in terms of timing. I don't schedule the timeslot, as you know, but we did anticipate that. As I said, we are getting through those two solid rounds, but if we have some suggestions.... We do have technical limitations to extending our meetings, but maybe you and I can chat offline and look at how to proceed moving forward.
Seeing no other hands raised, I would like to extend my appreciation and thanks to all of the witnesses and members for their work on this study.
Madam Clerk, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe these are the last witnesses for our study on the backlog. I want to thank you for all of the work that we've done. We still have more work to do. We have the report to review and the recommendations to bring to the House, and I look forward to that.
I want to thank all of the folks who are sitting in Ottawa helping making this possible so that we can get these meetings done virtually.
Thank you very much. If there's no objection, I move to adjourn the meeting.
The meeting is adjourned.