NDDN Committee Meeting

The Standing Committee on National Defence met in camera at 3:35 p.m. this day, in Room 362, East Block, the Chair, the Hon. Maxime Bernier, presiding.

The Chair presented the Second Report from the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure which read as follows:

Your Subcommittee met on Thursday, October 21, 2010, to consider the business of the Committee and agreed to make the following recommendations:

1. That six or seven two-hour meetings be held on next generation of fghter aircraft in the following manner:

– one meeting with Boeing Eurofighters, SAAB;

– one meeting with Lockheed Martin;

– one meeting with union groups;

– one meeting with stakeholder groups: Héroux-Devtek, Composite Atlantic, NGRAIN, Handling Specialties;

– one meeting with Tim Page and Alexander von Rosenbach;

– one meeting with the National Defence Department; and

– one meeting with think tank perspective groups.

2. That one meeting be held in order to study the government response to the 3rd report of the Committee.

3. That one meeting be held to study the Orders in Council.

4. That the clerk, in conjunction with the Chair, be authorize to prepare a budget to travel to Fort Worth, Texas, in order to visit the installations of Lockheed Martin.

5. That the clerk be authorized to modify the budget to travel to the Maritimes in order to add public audiences in Gander; to withdraw Trenton as a site visit and replace it with Halifax; and

That this trip occur, if possible, at the end of November.

6. That one meeting be held on search and rescue plane acquisitions.

7. That meetings be held in relation to Bill C-41.

It was agreed, — That the report of the Subcommittee be concurred in.

It was agreed, — That , in relation to its study on the next generation of fighter aircraft, a travel budget to Fort Worth, Texas, in the amount of $62,921, be adopted and that the Chair present the said budget to the Liaison Committee.

It was agreed, — That , in relation to its study on search and rescue response times, a travel budget to St. John’s, NL; Gander, NL; Greenwood, NS; and Halifax, NS, in the amount of $86,685, be adopted and that the Chair present the said budget to the Liaison Committee.

At 4:29 p.m., the sitting was suspended.

At 4:30 p.m., the sitting resumed in public.

At 5:04 p.m., the Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.