SCYR Committee Meeting
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SUB-COMMITTEE ON CHILDREN AND YOUTH AT RISK OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT AND THE STATUS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
SOUS-COMITÉ SUR LES ENFANTS ET JEUNES À RISQUE DU COMITÉ PERMANENT DES RESOURCES HUMAINES ET DE LA CONDITION DES PERSONNES HANDICAPÉES
EVIDENCE
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Wednesday, February 23, 2000
• 1554
The Chair (Mr. John Godfrey (Don Valley West, Lib.)): Let me formally call the meeting to order. We're now in business.
Let me tell you what I hope you're going to agree to. You've received the work plan, have you? Okay. We're under a little bit of stress, because Mr. Lowther has to go in five minutes, and that will take us below our quorum. So in the next five minutes, though it doesn't really affect anything very much, we'd like to put it on the record that there was agreement to this work plan.
• 1555
[English]
I'll summarize it very quickly. The folks present basically would like to do all three, beginning with the first one, which is to hear from Judith Maxwell about this new report, just out, on the policy mix. We thought when we invited them we'd get them to compare the ideal they put forward in their report with what the budget is going to say on Monday. So it gives us a frame of reference, a measuring stick.
It also will be a useful backgrounder for options B and C. There's quite a lot of enthusiasm particularly for C. I'm quite enthusiastic about B, but they're both doable. I don't think we have to say either/or. It's just a question of which order we go in.
The suggestion was—and I'd be interested in your reactions to this—that we not actually decide the sequence between B and C until we see what the budget says, in case there's something that makes it more obvious which one we should do first because there's some urgency. We know that, for example for B, there's urgency in the sense that by the end of the year there's going to be a deal, we hope, on a national action plan, and we would like to have our input on what some of those elements might be. But we don't need to do it right away.
I hope I've given you a bit of a sense of the meeting, and I hope this in general terms meets with your approval, but I'd be interested in your reactions.
Mr. Ovid L. Jackson (Bruce—Grey, Lib.): We need all the information. If you're flexible enough, we could debate it as a group. I know the way your mind works a little bit: you want to have a plan, you want to have some action, and we need it to be coordinated.
The Chair: Yes.
Mr. Ovid Jackson: So from that perspective, I think you're on the right track.
The Chair: For all three things? You don't have any problem with any of these three elements?
Mr. Ovid Jackson: No, I don't.
The Chair: Okay. Well, this is going to be one efficient meeting, because with that agreement, I think we've recovered nine ways to Sunday. So this is the work plan I'm going to put to the main committee of HRD. I'll put it by Thursday, just in case something changes.
We are hoping to bring in Judith Maxwell and the CPRN folk for next Wednesday, but we haven't given them much notice, so if we can't do that, I guess the alternative would be—and I just put this out for discussion—for us to have a sort of post-mortem discussion on the budget as it concerns the provisions for children, even if Judith Maxwell isn't here. Would that strike people as a useful exercise, to discuss what elements in the budget seem to be affecting children?
An hon. member: Absolutely.
The Chair: Can I get some consensus that that would be a place to start, even without the CPRN?
Mr. Eric Lowther (Calgary Centre, Ref.): When would that be, John?
The Chair: It would be a week from today, same hour, 3:30 Wednesday. Okay?
Mr. Eric Lowther: Sure. Yes.
The Chair: We will make that part of the massaged work plan for the thing, that one way or the other, we're going to talk about the budget.
I don't know how long Sandra will be with us. Sandra is sort of here and sort of not here. You think she's here. This is our beloved researcher, who is moving to another place, which is great, but she's—
Ms. Raymonde Folco (Laval West, Lib.): Just when they get really fantastic, they go away.
The Chair: Oh, she's been fantastic for years though. The point is she's not quite....
Do you have any sense of whether you'll be with us next week?
Ms. Sandra Harder (Committee Researcher): Oh, yes, I will be.
The Chair: Oh, good! We have mixed feelings. We want her to go where she wants to go, but we want to keep her, because we're selfish.
For next week then, depending on whether we get the CPRN folk in, that will be one way. But in any case, we'd want to have some budget highlights from the kit. I bet there's a budget document on it.
Ms. Sandra Harder: I bet there is.
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
The Chair: Okay. Have we consensus?
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chair: This is the fastest meeting you've ever attended, Mr. Jackson.
Thank you all. The meeting is adjourned.