HERI Committee Meeting

STANDING COMMITTEE ON CANADIAN HERITAGE

COMITÉ PERMANENT DU PATRIMOINE CANADIEN

EVIDENCE

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

• 0907

[English]

The Clerk of the Committee: This is the organization meeting for the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

Honourable members, I see a quorum. Your first order of business is to elect a chair, and I'm ready to receive a nomination to that effect.

Mr. John Finlay (Oxford, Lib.): Madam Clerk, I am pleased and honoured to move the name of Clifford Lincoln as chair of this committee.

The Clerk: Is there a further motion?

Ms. Cheryl Gallant (Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, Canadian Alliance): I'd like to move that Gurmant Grewal be nominated as chair as well and to have that motion by secret ballot, please.

The Clerk: Is there consent in the committee to proceed by secret ballot?

Some hon. members: No, Madam Clerk.

The Clerk: On the first motion, then, it's moved by John Finlay that Clifford Lincoln be elected chair of this committee.

(Motion agreed to)

The Clerk: I declare Clifford Lincoln duly elected chair of this committee.

The Chair (Mr. Clifford Lincoln (Lac-Saint-Louis, Lib.)): Thank you for your confidence.

Mr. Harvard.

Mr. John Harvard (Charleswood St. James—Assiniboia, Lib.): Congratulations on your election, Mr. Lincoln.

I'd like to move that Dennis Mills be a vice-chair of this committee.

(Motion agreed to)

The Chair: Mr. Mills, you are duly elected as a vice-chair of the committee.

Mr. Dennis Mills (Toronto—Danforth, Lib.): Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, colleagues.

The Chair: There is another position of vice-chair of the committee.

Mr. Gurmant Grewal (Surrey Central, Canadian Alliance): I nominate Ms. Cheryl Gallant to be a vice-chair.

[Translation]

A voice: I nominate Christiane Gagnon as vice-chair.

The Chair: So, we have one motion for Ms. Cheryl Gallant and one motion for Ms. Gagnon. We will proceed in order.

[English]

We will vote first on Mr. Grewal's motion.

• 0910

(Motion agreed to)

The Chair: Mrs. Gallant is elected as a vice-chair of the committee.

My first item of business would be to thank the members who have agreed to stand as members of this committee and to greet those who were not members of the committee previously.

[Translation]

I want to welcome them and say that at this committee we have until now worked in quite a consensual atmosphere. We have often managed to obtain consensus on several topics, even controversial ones, and on bills. I appreciated the atmosphere that prevailed in this committee and I hope that we will continue our good work.

[English]

I would like to thank you all for standing for this committee. We've had a pretty good atmosphere of cooperation here, and I hope it continues in this new committee.

I would suggest that our first business meeting be held next Thursday. What I would like to suggest is that I sit with the researchers and we identify some items the committee could look at. Likewise, if you have any items you would like the committee to deal with, I would ask that you bring them forward.

[Translation]

If you have any topics to propose, you can do so.

Ms. Gagnon, you have the floor.

Ms. Christiane Gagnon (Québec, BQ): Can we present them this week?

The Chair: No, if we meet Thursday perhaps we could begin a preliminary examination of topics. If you have any ideas in the meantime please let the clerk know.

Ms. Christiane Gagnon: Next Thursday I will not be able to come. We used to meet on Tuesdays. Will the meetings be taking place on Thursdays, exceptionally?

The Chair: Normally, we meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Ms. Christiane Gagnon: Very well.

The Chair: I am going to see whether the members of the committee want to wait till next Tuesday or if they want to begin this Thursday. Be that as it may, we will communicate with you to see. I suggest we meet, if only briefly,

[English]

even for a short time on Thursday morning, to just look at some ideas and give the clerk some sort of feeling of what subjects we would like to look at. If you have any ideas, please contact the clerk as soon as possible.

In the meantime, as you know, a bill on marine conservation areas, which relates to our committee, is being introduced today in the House. So I imagine that within a very short time we'll be involved with the clause-by-clause consideration of this bill.

Mr. Grewal.

Mr. Gurmant Grewal: Mr. Chairman, for the sake of clarification, it's usually a subcommittee that decides the future business of the committee. Are we going to strike a subcommittee to decide on the future business? You said it would be up to the chair to decide about the future business. I just want to make it clear—

The Chair: We'll have several motions. In the past the committee has adopted several motions regarding procedure. Instead of a steering committee, the committee has usually worked as a whole to decide on future business, and it seems to have worked. But if it's the wish of the members to strike a steering committee to look at future business, I don't have any objections. I'm just suggesting that last time the committee worked as a whole to decide on future business so that all the members could participate, and it seems to have worked very well. But if a majority of members would prefer to have a steering committee do this and then present items for discussion, that's fine with me. I don't have any feelings either way. But somehow it seemed to work very well last time, the way it was.

• 0915

We have to adopt several motions regarding procedure, the delay for notice of motions, etc.

[Translation]

Shall we do that today or Thursday?

[English]

We'll do this next Thursday.

We'll start with adopting these procedural motions. Then if you want to bring a motion forward to have a steering committee do the screening of business items rather than the full committee, that's fine with me.

Mr. Gurmant Grewal: Sure.

[Translation]

The Chair: Ms. Gagnon.

Ms. Christiane Gagnon: I know that we will be able to make our requests next Thursday, but I would like to remind you that during the last session, we had made a commitment with regard to The World March of Women. The committee was to study the impact of that march on women's demands, but we have to be realistic. If we take on the examination of this very important but also very broad subject, because of the topics... I know that the Canadian Heritage Committee had not made creating a subcommittee to analyze this whole issue a priority, but if the Canadian Heritage Committee takes this on, the political agenda of the coming months will be completely filled up by assessing the impact of The World March of Women. I would like us to think about it because we may have to come back to this next week. It is an important dossier and people who are concerned by the issue should study it. Should it be the whole committee, or a subcommittee? In any case, something will have to be done because there is no forum in Parliament where we can talk about poverty. The issue is divided up among various committees.

The Chair: Ms. Gagnon, I don't want us to discuss the substance of the matter today. That is not our role, today. All I can say is that I am aware of the fact that Ms. St-Hilaire has submitted a motion to that effect to this committee, but since this committee has new members and is making a new start, it will be up to those people to decide on the topics the committee will be studying. I think there is a misunderstanding. The subcommittee Mr. Grewal was referring to is a working subcommittee, but that does not prevent the committee from striking subcommittees to examine topics it will have chosen to study. If that is one and if the committee in its wisdom decides to strike a subcommittee to examine the matter of the women's march, if that is the agenda it selects, very well. Naturally, we will have to discuss all of that because we are a new committee. It will be up to the committee to choose the topics it wants to study.

Mr. Harvey.

Mr. André Harvey (Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, Lib.): Mr. Chair, personally, I would like the whole committee to study the matter so that we might have the opportunity of discussing the priorities we want to select. I would prefer that to a steering committee which would have the privilege of making our choices for us.

Secondly, I would prefer that we meet Thursday morning rather than Thursday afternoon, because when we have to leave in the late afternoon on Thursdays to go to remote areas, it is difficult.

The Chair: Mr. Harvey, have you finished?

Mr. André Harvey: Yes, I have.

The Chair: Very well. Wait. One at a time, please.

Mr. Harvey expressed his wish that the whole committee, rather than a select committee, examine this matter.

[English]

But we'll discuss this next week.

[Translation]

We will discuss that when we meet again.

It has been moved that we meet next Thursday to pass routine motions and then to examine the matter of the future work of the committee. If we do not finish Thursday, we will continue at a later date.

[English]

Ms. Cheryl Gallant: Next Thursday Tony Blair is expected to be in town and as—

An hon. member: No, this Thursday.

The Chair: That is correct. I'd forgotten about that. We have the assistant whip with us. Do you know what—

Mr. John Harvard: There's no conflict. He's here this week. You're talking about next week. Blair is here this week.

The Chair: No, I was talking about this Thursday. So now we'll probably sit next Tuesday. Thanks for reminding me. So next Tuesday we'll sit to look at motions and suggested items of work.

• 0920

I have just one announcement before we break, because this meeting is purely on procedure. The minister, Ms. Copps, is holding a luncheon today with regard to Parks Canada. As you know, we adopted a new piece of legislation on ecological integrity during the last session, and Parks Canada is embarking on a new phase of its work surrounding that subject. So there's a luncheon today to in a way honour the work of Parks Canada and its future. It will take place in room 253-D at 12 noon. All of you are cordially invited. The minister has asked me to let you know that.

Ms. Bulte.

Ms. Sarmite Bulte (Parkdale—High Park, Lib.): Mr. Chair, if I could just add to that, we're also celebrating the fact that the act came into force yesterday. That's also the purpose of the luncheon.

The Chair: Okay.

I will ask the clerk to circulate the various items of procedure and the resolutions that are going to be considered next week so that you will know in advance what they are and will have a chance to look at them. They are routine items, but at least you'll be prepared for them.

Mr. John Harvard: I vote we adjourn.

The Chair: The meeting is adjourned.