HAFF Committee Meeting

37th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION

Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs

COMMITTEE EVIDENCE

CONTENTS

Thursday, February 7, 2002

The Chair (Mr. Peter Adams (Peterborough, Lib.))

Mr. White (Langley--Abbotsford)

A voice

The Chair

Mr. Jay Hill (Prince George--Peace River, PC/DR)

The Chair

Mr. Jay Hill

The Chair

Ms. Marlene Catterall (Ottawa West--Nepean, Lib.)

The Chair

CANADA

COMMITTEE EVIDENCE

Thursday, February 7, 2002

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

¹  (1530)  

[English]

    The Chair (Mr. Peter Adams (Peterborough, Lib.)): Colleagues, let us begin. Our sole purpose today is to adopt the report of our steering committee, which I believe you all have copies of, but before we begin, I'd like to thank the translators and the staff for appearing here at very short notice; we do greatly appreciate that.

    As I asked members before, and now Pierre is here, I'd be grateful if you would look at the English and French versions for minor errors--we're not talking about substantive changes here--the reason being that as you all know, this report was also produced in the last few minutes. I have one change, and that is in the English, in the second clause of the “thats”, where it should refer to a preliminary list of witnesses.

    I also asked informally before whether anyone knows--and I hope it doesn't matter--if Commodore Tefoe's location is correct, Canadian Component on Afghanistan. I don't think we know, but it's Commodore Tefoe who is of interest.

    Randy, you had another one?

¹  (1540)  

    Mr. Randy White (Langley--Abbotsford, Canadian Alliance): I'm not sure, Mr. Chairman, whether Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison is the deputy chief or the vice-chief. We were looking for the deputy, but I don't know.

    A voice: I'll have the answer within three seconds.

    The Chair: Okay. While you're you're looking at it--these are minor corrections--I would say, colleagues, this report is the subject of negotiation, very formal, very intense negotiation, between all five parties. I appreciate the patience and the time of all concerned, and you'll see that it's phrased thus: “Subject to the adoption of an Order of the House referring to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs the question of privilege concerning statements made in the House by the Minister of National Defence, the Sub-Committee agreed to...” That motion has now been passed. It's phrased like that because at the time the steering committee agreed to this it had not been passed.

    I will go through it so you will have it: that the proceedings be held in the television rooms and be televised; that a preliminary list of witnesses be appended--it is appended--and that other witnesses may be called, so it's a preliminary list of witnesses; that Brian Pallister and Art Eggleton be given the opportunity to be heard early on--given the opportunity, it doesn't say they'll be heard; that if the committee deems it necessary, witnesses may be called for subsequent appearances--in other words, if members have not exhausted the time, they will be called back again; that the proceedings take place during sitting weeks and in the evening, if necessary--members did not want to meet during breaks; and that the committee report to the House before March 15, 2002, if possible.

    The list you see is in alphabetical order by surname, and that's quite straightforward until you get to Commodore Tefoe. You will notice in the case of Commodore Tefoe, because he is based in Florida, and despite a tentative motion by Yvon Godin that the committee go to Florida, as a backup plan--this is a secondary plan that we have here--he will be asked to respond to written questions from members. By the way, I now ask members who are interested to develop those questions, so they can be put. And then the senior official, Foreign Affairs, is identified in that way because that was something that was done in the last hour or so; it was agreed it will be a senior official of Foreign Affairs, but we don't know exactly who it is yet.

    Jay Hill.

    Mr. Jay Hill (Prince George--Peace River, PC/DR): On both those last two issues, Mr. Chairman, to recap what happened at subcommittee in regard to the senior official, it certainly was the understanding of the opposition that it would be, if not the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, then certainly a senior ADM who understands the operations of that department and the communication and information flow.

    Second, on the issue of the questions welcomed from all committee members that would be put to Commodore Tefoe, are we going to suggest a deadline for having them submitted to the clerk, whereupon he will compile them into a questionnaire and send them down to the Commodore? How does the committee want to proceed with that?

¹  (1545)  

    The Chair: As usual, I'm in the hands of the committee, but my sense there, Jay, is that you could leave some of that to me. I'm going to see that as long as we get the questions, the replies will be here in good time for the hearings.

    Mr. Jay Hill: All I was suggesting was that as a matter of courtesy, we should know well ahead of time what the deadline is to have them submitted. That's all.

    The Chair: I will see that we do that, and I confirm what you've said about the official from Foreign Affairs.

    Is there anything else on this?

    Would someone care to move that the committee adopt this report of our subcommittee. I see Marlene Catterall, seconded by Randy White.

    Is there any discussion?

    Ms. Marlene Catterall (Ottawa West--Nepean, Lib.): Mr. Chair, just before we go, allow me to express my thanks to the members of the steering committee from all parties for some really excellent work during the last 24 hours under a lot of pressure. And my thanks to you as well, Mr. Chair. It is going to help ensure that our consideration of this matter is cordial and in the best interests of Parliament.

    The Chair: I also thank the members who were involved in this.

    (Motion agreed to)

    The meeting is adjourned to the call of the chair.