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Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.

I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions, cannot entertain points of honour nor participate in debate.

We can now proceed to the election of the chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party.

I am ready to receive motions for the chair.

Mr. Blaney, you have the floor.

Madam Clerk, we had an excellent chair in the previous parliament. They will be big shoes to fill, though they are small in size.

I would like to propose that Scott Simms be elected as chair of the committee.

Mr. Blaney moves that Scott Simms be elected as chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

Are there other motions? Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Scott Simms duly elected chair of the committee.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

Thank you all.

I would also like to acknowledge Ms. Dabrusin as well and the fine job she did as chair. I never sat in on many meetings, but I heard they went really well.

I thank you so much.

Thank you.

It's been a while since I've been on the heritage committee, but it is certainly good to be back and is certainly an honour to be sitting here.

Thank you once more.

Now it's the election of the vice-chairs.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.

I am now ready to receive motions for the first vice-chair.

Mr. Shields, you have the floor.

I nominate Mr. Blaney.

Are there any further motions? Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Steven Blaney duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

Is it the wish of the committee to proceed to second vice-chair at this time? Okay.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

I am now prepared to receive motions for the position of second vice-chair.

Mr. Housefather.

It is my pleasure to nominate Martin Champoux for the position of second vice-chair.

I also want to say that I personally support the idea that there should be a third vice-chair from the NDP. They should also be represented as one of the vice-chairs. I know that this is before PROC, and I hope it will come out successfully. I know that we can't do it without a change in the rules.

Are there other further motions? Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Champoux duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

Congratulations, Mr. Champoux.

Now we're going to go on to the routine motions. For those of you with experience, you know exactly where we're heading with this.

If the committee agrees, we will now proceed with the adoption of routine motions. Members have received the committee's routine motions from the previous Parliament in an email. As a reminder, a motion must be moved by a committee member. It doesn't need to be seconded.

Are there any members who would like to move routine motions at this time?

I would like to, Mr. Chair.

At this time, I have routine motions to propose. I have French and English copies, and if it's okay with you, I'll read the English.

Please proceed.

I move:

That the committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the Chair, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist it in its work.

Is there any discussion on this or any comments?

(Motion agreed to)

Now we can invite the analysts to the table, who have been patiently waiting, I might add. If the committee will indulge me, please, a round of applause for our great analysts.

Some hon. members: Hear, hear!

The Chair: You'll notice that we did that in advance of your wonderful work, by the way.

There's no pressure.

None whatsoever. Thank you very much.

Mr. Louis, please proceed again.

Regarding a subcommittee on agenda and procedure, I move:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of five (5) members; the Chair, one Member from each Party; and that the subcommittee work in a spirit of collaboration.

Is there any further discussion on this?

(Motion agreed to)

We now go to Mr. Louis once more. Thank you.

Regarding reduced quorum, I move:

That the Chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four members are present, including one member of the opposition and one member of the government, but when travelling outside the Parliamentary Precinct that the meeting begin after 15 minutes, regardless of members present.

Is there any discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis.

Regarding the questioning of witnesses, I move:

That witnesses be given 10 minutes for their opening statement; that, at the discretion of the Chair, during the questioning of witnesses, in the first round, there be allocated six minutes for the first questioner of each party as follows: Conservative Party, Liberal Party, Bloc Québécois, New Democratic Party. That for the second and subsequent rounds, the order and time for questioning be as follows: Conservative Party, five minutes, Liberal Party, five minutes, Conservative Party, five minutes, Liberal Party, five minutes, Bloc Québécois, two and a half minutes, New Democratic Party, two and a half minutes.

Is there any further discussion on this?

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis.

Regarding document distribution, I move that the clerk of the committee be authorized to distribute documents to members of the committee only when the documents are available in both official languages and that witnesses be advised accordingly.

Is there any discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Now, for some of you, this may prove to be the most important part of our deliberations.

Mr. Louis, I turn to you once more for this very important matter.

Regarding working meals, I move:

That the clerk of the committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide working meals for the committee and its subcommittees.

Is there any discussion?

Ms. Dabrusin.

Personally, I would like vegetarian meals to be provided for those who prefer them.

Would you like to move a formal amendment on that?

I don't know if it needs a formal amendment. I would just say, please, that it be duly noted.

Duly noted it is. Thank you, Ms. Dabrusin.

(Motion agreed to)

Regarding witnesses' expenses, I move:

That, if requested, reasonable travel, accommodation and living expenses be reimbursed to witnesses not exceeding two representatives per organization; provided that, in exceptional circumstances, payment for more representatives be made at the discretion of the Chair.

Is there any discussion?

Mr. Waugh.

Chair, if I may, the House of Commons precinct spends hundreds of thousands of dollars for video equipment here. Most committees, for reasons unknown, don't use this. This is the 21st century and we are the heritage committee. I would encourage this committee and all other committees to use video conferencing.

I know that we have certain things for which we may need our guests to come here live, for delicate situations, but this is a set-up of $100,000-plus throughout the precinct and we're not using it like we should. I would like to see this committee use this and demonstrate leadership. We have the teleconferencing. I've been on many committees in the past and we don't use it enough. I would like us to use this more and have less bringing of guests here to committee.

Before I weigh in on that, does anybody else want to respond to the point made by Mr. Waugh?

Seeing none, you're correct. We have used a lot of it in the past. It is of high quality and it's been pretty good. I don't know if anyone with past experiences in video conferencing would say otherwise, but we have used it.

Would you like to move an amendment, or would you just like that for the record?

For the record.

It is duly noted. I completely empathize with what you're saying.

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis, go ahead once more.

Regarding staff at in camera meetings, I move:

That, unless otherwise ordered, each committee member be allowed to have one staff member at an in camera meeting, and that one additional person from each House officer's office will be allowed to be present.

Is there any discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis, go ahead once more.

For in camera meeting transcripts, I move:

That one copy of the transcript of each in camera meeting be kept in the committee clerk's office for consultation by members of the committee or by their staff.

Is there any discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis, go ahead.

Regarding notices of motions, I move that 48 hours' notice, interpreted as two nights, shall be required for any substantive motion to be considered by the committee, unless the substantive motion relates directly to business then under consideration, provided that (1) the notice be filed with the clerk of the committee no later than 4 p.m. from Monday to Friday, that (2) the motion be distributed to members in both official languages by the clerk on the same day the said notice was transmitted if it was received no later than the deadline hour, and that (3) notices received after the deadline hour or on non-business days be deemed to have been received during the next business day; and that when the committee is travelling on official business, no substantive motions may be moved.

Is there any discussion?

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Louis, go ahead.

Regarding independent members and clause-by-clause, I move:

That, in relation to Orders of Reference from the House respecting Bills,

(a) the clerk of committee shall, upon the committee receiving such an Order of Reference, write to each Member who is not a member of a caucus represented on the committee to invite those Members to file with the clerk of the committee, in both official languages, any amendments to the Bill, which is the subject of the said Order, which they would suggest that the committee consider;

(b) suggested amendments filed, pursuant to paragraph (a), at least 48 hours prior to the start of clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill to which the amendments relate shall be deemed to be proposed during the said consideration, provided that the committee may, by motion, vary this deadline in respect of a given Bill; and

(c) during the clause-by-clause consideration of a Bill, the Chair shall allow a Member who filed suggested amendments, pursuant to paragraph (a), an opportunity to make brief representations in support of them.

Are there any further discussions?

(Motion agreed to)

Colleagues, are there any more routine motions you'd like to deal with at this time?

Seeing none, I move that we go to committee business.

Before we go to committee business, may I just interject here for one quick moment? You'll see in front of you, from the Library of Parliament, of which I'm a huge fan—being here for 16 years, I can attest to the fact that they do wonderful work—this research paper, “The Work of the Heritage Committee”.

We also have the French version, entitled “Travaux du comité du Patrimoine canadien”.

It is something we should all look at, especially if you're new. They do a great job with this. Please go ahead and ask them any questions you may have.

I just wanted to mention that because these are wonderful little things that can give us a good overview before we actually start into the business.

That being said, would there be anything else someone would like to raise regarding committee business?

Mr. Blaney.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am pleased to see that the committee is now set up. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the analysts for the report they produced during the last session, entitled “Shifting Paradigms”. During the summer, I received many positive comments on the recommendations in the report, which were unanimous, as I recall.

However, as I was saying before the meeting, it would seem that we have not given the government the opportunity to respond to the report. It contains recommendations that were approved by the government of the time, a government that is still in power. I don’t know whether that is an oversight. I just wanted to inform you that I am going to introduce a motion to give the government an opportunity to respond to the report, which was by consensus and which has received a lot of support.

In addition, and you can tell me whether this is necessary or not, I intend to present a motion to invite the authors of the report submitted by Janet Yale and entitled “Canada's Communications Future: Time to Act”. We would then have the opportunity to hear them present the report to us.

I bring this to your attention. We can debate it later, if necessary.

Just for clarification, then, there are two motions that you want to bring.

Right.

One is regarding the report and the other is regarding the recent Yale report and the witnesses involved in that report.

Exactly, Mr. Chair.

Actually, on this one, I would seek unanimous consent to table that motion today. It's to invite the author of the report to come in front of us and present her conclusions.

Since you've already given us the notice, we can distribute that now.

Okay.

You don't need unanimous consent for that.

Is there any discussion?

Ms. Dabrusin.

I've had the opportunity to speak to Mr. Blaney before this meeting. There's a date referred to within that motion as a hard deadline, but that hasn't been run by the people who are seeking to call the witnesses.

I would propose a friendly amendment, I believe, to make it “at the earliest convenience” of the witnesses sought in that motion.

Before I go to Mr. Housefather, can I ask Mr. Blaney to read the text of the motion, please?

I will read it with the proposed amendment, Mr. Chair. It would say that the committee invite the broadcasting and telecommunications legislative review panel to present the report “Canada’s communications future: Time to act” to members of the committee at the earliest convenience.

That reflects the amendment.

Before we get into any amendments, I'll go to Mr. Housefather, who wants to comment.