AANR Committee Meeting

STANDING COMMITTEE ON ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS, NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES

COMITÉ PERMANENT DES AFFAIRES AUTOCHTONES, DU DÉVELOPPEMENT DU GRAND NORD ET DES RESSOURCES NATURELLES

EVIDENCE

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

Tuesday, February 20, 2001

• 1532

[English]

The Clerk of the Committee: I see a quorum. In conformity with Standing Order 106(1) and (2), your first item of business is to elect a chair. I am ready to receive motions to that effect.

Mr. Reed Elley (Nanaimo—Cowichan, Canadian Alliance): Before we proceed to the nomination of a chair, I move that we select the chairman by secret ballot.

The Clerk: Is it the unanimous consent of the committee to proceed in that manner?

Some hon. members: No.

The Clerk: Seeing no unanimous consent, is there a motion for the election of the chair?

[Translation]

Mr. Guy St-Julien (Abitibi—James Bay—Nunavik, Lib.): I move that Nancy Karetak-Lindell be elected chairperson.

[English]

The Clerk: Are there any other motions to elect the chair?

[Translation]

Are there any other motions?

[English]

Seeing no other motions I will put the question.

(Motion agreed to)

The Clerk: I declare that Madam Nancy Karetak-Lindell takes the chair of the committee.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear.

The Chair (Ms. Nancy Karetak-Lindell (Nunavut, Lib.)): First of all, I want to thank all of you for giving me the honour of chairing this committee. I know this is a combined committee with natural resources, so I imagine there will be a little different focus from our last aboriginal affairs committee.

I look forward to working with all of you. As you know, with the throne speech, aboriginal issues were a very strong focus, and I hope to be able to move forward on those issues along with all of you in this committee.

Our next order of business is the election of vice-chairs. I will be entertaining motions.

Mr. Benoît Serré (Timiskaming—Cochrane, Lib.): I move to nominate John Godfrey for vice-chair.

The Chair: Will there be any other motions?

Mr. Reed Elley: I would like to move that Maurice Vellacott also be a vice-chair.

• 1535

[Translation]

Mr. Guy St-Julien: I move that the nominations be closed.

[English]

The Chair: Thank you.

Nominations are now closed. Are members in agreement with both motions?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Chair: Our two vice-chairs are John Godfrey from the government side and Maurice Vellacott from the opposition.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear.

The Chair: It seems, if there's no further business at this time, we will be discussing the future business, unless there's....

Mr. John Godfrey (Don Valley West, Lib.): Will we do that right now or later?

The Chair: Mr. Chatters.

Mr. David Chatters (Athabasca, Canadian Alliance): I would assume that before we start on future business we would clarify some of the procedural requirements of the committee. It would be appropriate at this time to set the groundwork for how the committee works and what the procedural rules would be before we go to future business.

The Chair: Would you like to entertain those now so that we settle how we're going to do the time, or perhaps have an executive meeting to discuss those?

Mr. Benoît Serré: Madam Chair, I understand what David is saying, but we've all been members of committee before, and most committees function in the same manner with the same rules of procedure. I don't quite understand what he means.

Mr. David Chatters: It seems to me that committees are masters of their own destiny and are required to set their own procedural rules. They're not set by precedent. That's always been my understanding, at least.

I'm not being difficult here, or obstructionist, but I would like to clarify the procedure for asking questions of witnesses. I would also like to make a motion that there be no votes when the committee is in camera. I just think it would be helpful to get a few things like that clarified before we get going.

For instance, there always seems to be a debate about notice of motion on matters coming before the committee. The distribution of documents is one that, in the time I've been here, we always argue endlessly over before we start.

So perhaps we could just have some clarification.

The Chair: Mr. Godfrey.

Mr. John Godfrey: So that we have an orderly discussion I think it would be helpful for all members of the committee to know the full range of procedures that Mr. Chatters has in mind, simply all the issues. Then it might be useful for those of us who are joining the committee for the first time to get some sense of how the committee resolved these issues in a previous time. Not that we're necessarily committed to continuing that way; it's just that for those of us who don't know the culture of the committee, I think it would be helpful to have both a full list of what we're talking about and then how you used to do it. I think that would help me.

I don't know whether or not we're in a position to do that at this particular moment, because I hear the list getting longer as Mr. Chatters thinks about it.

• 1540

The Chair: Mr. Serré.

Mr. Benoît Serré: Madam Chair, I think what Mr. Chatters is talking about is actually part of future business. I would suggest, if we're going to talk about future business today, that you put it on the agenda to establish that the first item of discussion at the next meeting would be to establish the format of meetings and the procedural requirements as far as distribution of literature and whatnot. If we put that as future business we could discuss that before anything else.

I also would like to propose, in terms of future business, that Bill C-4 be put as the first order of priority once the ground rules are established.

The Chair: Thank you.

Monsieur Marceau.

[Translation]

Mr. Richard Marceau (Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier, BQ): Madam Chair, it would appear that most of the members present have already adopted routine motions either here or in other committees. Some motions are routinely moved at every committee. This is the fifth time I've gone through this exercise. Routine motions include ones respecting the quorum needed to hear witnesses, the time allotted to witnesses, the distribution of papers and so forth. There are nine such motions on which all committees vote. I believe we can dispense with all of this today without having to schedule a second meeting. It's become a routine thing. This is the second or third time I've seen Jacques Saada. Perhaps Mr. St-Julien doesn't remember, but Pat was with me yesterday, and so was Serge. We can certainly dispense with these motions at this time.

Mr. Guy St-Julien: What should I be remembering?

Mr. Richard Marceau: The routine motions.

Mr. Guy St-Julien: Fine. I thought that... [Editor's note: Inaudible]

Mr. Richard Marceau: No, no.

[English]

The Chair: I see four new members here. I remember what it's like to be a new member, and I think we owe it to some of the newly elected members to help them find out a little bit about what we're doing here. I would like to put it down for future business.

You can talk amongst yourselves as to how much notice you want, whether you want 24 hours' notice or 48 hours' notice. Those are the kinds of things that are sounding very easy to us now but for some new members who are probably at their first committee meeting, I think we owe them the courtesy of helping them absorb a bit of this, and we can discuss it at the next meeting.

[Translation]

Mr. Richard Marceau: I see. I have a question. It was my understanding that motions would be introduced, as was the case yesterday in the Finance Committee. If you prefer to wait until the next meeting to do that, Madam Chair, then I suggest you come back with some clearly worded proposals respecting the time allotted to witnesses and for questions, the sequence for questions, appointments in council and so forth. I suggest that you draw up, with the help of the clerk, a series of motions on which we can quickly vote. Mr. Binet and Mr. Carignan are both intelligent men. I'm sure they are prepared to deal with these motions today, but I will defer to your judgement and hope that these motions are put on paper.

Mr. Guy St-Julien: Fine. Then we'll deal with this at the next meeting.

[English]

The Chair: I was planning to meet with the clerk to clarify all these and get the material out to everyone before the next meeting.

Mr. Serré.

[Translation]

Mr. Benoît Serré: I agree, but I think we should include the two vice-chairs. Then at least, one official opposition member would have the opportunity to express his opinion. As my Bloc colleague said, it will be quicker when the full committee meets.

[English]

The Chair: Thank you. Mr. Godfrey.

Mr. John Godfrey: I wonder as well whether the three of us, perhaps the two vice-chairs and the chair, or at least the chair, could actually ask the two departments for at least a quick and dirty on which pieces of legislation.... We know that Bill C-4 is going through the House tonight, so that's coming right away. But in order to do our work plan or at least to have some background information, it would be good to know what is coming down the pipeline.

Perhaps we could ask the chair to get in touch with both ministers to find out what they have coming to us and when, and give us at least a preliminary sense of it. We can't plan our work until we know the legislation we have to deal with.

The Chair: All right. Thank you.

I would ask the two vice-chairs to stay after this meeting to go over a few issues with me before we get all the information out to everyone.

Mr. Chatters.

• 1545

Mr. David Chatters: Unfortunately, Madam Chair, our nominated vice-chair is at a doctor's appointment. He is ill this afternoon. However, one of the other members can sit in for him.

The Chair: Thank you.

Mr. Cardin.

[Translation]

Mr. Serge Cardin (Sherbrooke, BQ): Since two committees have been combined, namely aboriginal affairs and natural resources, we need to decide how we're going to proceed. Are we going to focus more on one sector than on the other, or will we give equal consideration to both? Will the presence of all committee members be required, regardless of whether we're looking at aboriginal affairs or natural resources, or are some members only interested in one area in particular?

[English]

The Chair: As far as I understand it, this is now known as one committee.

Did you want to add something to that?

[Translation]

Mr. Benoît Serré: I was just about to say that. The committee will be setting priorities, regardless of which department they concern. This is one committee, not two separate entities, and members are here to consider matters relating to aboriginal affairs and natural resources.

[English]

The Chair: If there is no further business I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Mr. Benoît Serré: I move to adjourn.

Mr. John Finlay (Oxford, Lib.): I second that.

(Motion agreed to)

The Chair: Thank you.