HEAL Committee Meeting
Notices of Meeting include information about the subject matter to be examined by the committee and date, time and place of the meeting, as well as a list of any witnesses scheduled to appear. The Evidence is the edited and revised transcript of what is said before a committee. The Minutes of Proceedings are the official record of the business conducted by the committee at a sitting.
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37th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
Standing Committee on Health
EVIDENCE
CONTENTS
Thursday, April 18, 2002
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The Chair (Ms. Bonnie Brown (Oakville, Lib.)) |
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The Chair |
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Dr. Claire Franklin (Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency) |
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The Chair |
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Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk--Interlake, Canadian Alliance) |
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The Chair |
CANADA
Standing Committee on Health |
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EVIDENCE
Thursday, April 18, 2002
[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Á 
(1110)
[English]
The Chair (Ms. Bonnie Brown (Oakville, Lib.)): I'm going to call this meeting to order, ladies and gentlemen, and wish you all a good morning. Welcome to our guests from the Pest Management Regulatory Agency and the lawyer from Justice Canada.
However, it's obvious that most of the members of the committee are responding to the bells and are going directly to the House of Commons for a vote. Due to the fact that these particular witnesses are among the most important we will hear on this particular piece of legislation, because the bill originated with the agency they represent, I think it would be too bad if they went through their presentation and only 4 of the 17 members of the committee heard it. Therefore, I'm going to suggest that we suspend the meeting for the time being and resume after the vote, in hopes that we get a larger crowd to come and listen to you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience to you.
I also want to tell you that in the audience this morning we have Ms. Tatiana Yakovleva, who is the deputy chair of the health and sport committee from Russia. I met with her for about an hour prior to this meeting. She had many questions and we had a most enjoyable meeting. I'm hoping she and her translator might take advantage of this break in the proceedings to talk to some of the people in the room as to what they do for and with the Government of Canada.
Tatiana, we welcome you here. Thank you so much.
This meeting will be suspended until we reconvene after the vote, which will be about 11:45, I would guess. Thank you.
Á (1110)
 (1201)
The Chair: This meeting is reconvened. I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. There is a great deal of procedural wrangling going on in the House at the present moment. It is the prediction of several of us that this bell ringing will go on most of the day. Therefore, it will become impossible to have a proper meeting with a presentation followed by questions about the presentation. We could probably get a little bit of presentation in, but we have very few members to listen to it.
I'm going to suggest that we adjourn this meeting and authorize the clerk to set another time. I'm hopeful that if it's next week, you might take the remarks you were going to give this morning and perhaps have time to get them translated for our French-speaking colleagues. We'll look forward to seeing you.
It's my desire that we see you first. Actually, we saw the minister first, but to me, the drafters of the bill have to be among our very first witnesses. I'm hoping it will be early in the week that we might be able to get together with you.
Dr. Claire Franklin (Executive Director, Pest Management Regulatory Agency): That would be fine. I think it would be easy enough to do that. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in allowing members to hear what we have to say.
The Chair: I'm not a believer in having people who have worked hard to do something talking to an empty set of chairs.
Mr. Hilstrom would like to comment.
Mr. Howard Hilstrom (Selkirk--Interlake, Canadian Alliance): Thank you, Madam Chairman. I think your judgment in this today is wise.
I was just going to mention to the witnesses one of the questions I was going to ask, so they can be quite prepared for it. It was to give a full layman's explanation of that hundredfold and thousandfold, and how it's going to be that much improvement. I'm sure you're probably ready for it today, but it's very technical and complex, so I just offer that suggestion.
The Chair: That's very helpful, Mr. Hilstrom. Thank you.
For those who have taken time out of their day to attend this meeting, I'm sorry your time has been wasted, but these are the problems of parliamentary procedure.
With that, I'll now adjourn the meeting.