FOPO Committee Meeting

The Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans met at 3:36 p.m. this day, in Room 268, La Promenade Building, for the purpose of electing a Chair, pursuant to Standing Order 106(1).

On motion of Lawrence MacAulay, it was agreed, — That Rodney Weston be elected Chair of the Committee.

On motion of Randy Kamp, it was agreed, — That Robert Chisholm be elected First Vice-Chair of the Committee.

On motion of Robert Chisholm, it was agreed, — That Hon. Lawrence MacAulay be elected Second Vice-Chair of the Committee.

At 3:40 p.m., Rodney Weston took the Chair.

It was agreed, — That, further to the Order adopted by the House on Tuesday, December 3, 2013, regarding changes to committee memberships, the Committee’s routine motion regarding the questioning of witnesses be replaced by the following:

That witnesses from any one organization shall be allowed ten (10) minutes to make their opening statement. During the questioning of witnesses, there shall be allocated ten (10) minutes for the 1st round of questioning and thereafter five (5) minutes shall be allocated to each questioner in the 2nd and subsequent rounds of questioning; and that the order of questions for the 1st round of questioning shall be as follows: New Democratic Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Conservative Party. Questioning during the 2nd round shall alternate between the Government members and Opposition members in the following fashion: New Democratic Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party, Conservative Party, Conservative Party, and if time permits, Liberal Party; based on the principle that each committee member should have a full opportunity to question the witness(es). If time permits, further rounds shall repeat the pattern of the first two at the discretion of the chair.

Robert Chisholm gave notice of the following motion:

That the Committee immediately begin an examination of the library closure at the Pacific Region Headquarters Library, Vancouver; the Pacific Biological Station Library, Nanaimo; the Eric Marshall Aquatic Research Library, Winnipeg; the Maurice Lamontagne Institute Library, Mont- Joli; the Mere Juliette Library of the Gulf Fisheries Centre, Moncton; the St, Andrews Biological Station Library, St. Andrews; and the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre Library, St. John’s, based on accusations that the Department of Fisheries & Oceans destroyed valuable and irreplaceable research, including research papers that were thrown in the dumpster and, that the witnesses include officials from the Department of Fisheries & Oceans; Library and Archives Canada; and researchers who depend on these libraries for their work.

At 4:17 p.m., the Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.