LANG Committee Meeting
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MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
Meeting No. 7
Tuesday, February 4, 2003
The
Standing Committee on Official Languages met in camera at 9:26 a.m. this
day, in Room 112-N, Centre Block, the Chair, Mauril Bélanger, presiding.
Members of the Committee
present: Carole-Marie
Allard, Mark Assad, Mauril Bélanger, John Bryden, Yvon Godin, Benoît Sauvageau,
Raymond Simard and Yolande Thibeault.
Acting Members present: Larry Bagnell for Eugène Bellemare
and Serge Marcil for Jeannot Castonguay.
In attendance: From the Research Branch of the Library of Parliament: Marion Ménard, Analyst.
The Committee proceeded to
the consideration of a draft report on the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission.
It was agreed, -- That the
draft report, as amended, be adopted as the First Report of the Committee.
It was agreed, -- That the
report be entitled: Role and responsibilities of the Canadian Radio-television
and Telecommunications in developments in the area of official languages in
Canada.
It was agreed, -- That the Committee
append to its report, supplementary or dissenting opinions from the opposition
parties provided that they are no more that 5 pages in lenght and submitted
electronically to the Clerk of the Committee, no later than 12:00 p.m. on
February 5, 2003.
It was agreed, -- That the
Chair, Clerk and researchers be authorized to make such grammatical and
editorial changes as may be necessary without changing the substance of the
report.
It was agreed, -- That,
pursuant to Standing Order 109, the Committee request that the Government table
a comprehensive response to the report.
It was agreed, -- That the
Committee print 550 copies of this report in tumble bilingual format with a
standard cover.
It was agreed, -- That the
Chair present the report to the House.
It was agreed, -- That the
work of the Committee be communicated to the public by a press release and that
a press conference be held on the day when the report is presented to the
House.
It was agreed, -- That, notwithstanding Standing Order
118(1), the Standing Committee on Official Languages seeks permission of the
House to reduce quorum of the Committee to seven (7) members.
The Committee commenced
consideration of matters related to committee business.
That the
next witnesses to be invited to appear before the Committee are as follows:
- For the
week of February 3, 2003, (1) some witnesses regarding the concerns of the
acadian community of New-Brunswick about a proposal of redrawing the
constituencies of this province, (2) some witnesses regarding the concept of
"community of interest" that comes from the Electoral Boundaries
Readjustment Act and (3) some representatives from the Canada Customs and
Revenue Agency about the services offered in both official languages in
large-sized airports and border crossings.
- For the
week of February 10, 2003, (1) the minister of National Defence and the Chief
of the Defence Staff regarding the Department’s latest report submitted to the
Treasury Board on official languages and the (2) the minister of Citizenship
and Immigration for the Committee’s study entitled “Immigration and Official
Language Minority Communities”.
- For the
week of February 17, 2003, the Quebec Community Group Network, the
Commissioner on Official Languages and Mr. Carsten Quell, author of a
study entitled “Official Languages and Immigration: Obstacles and Opportunities
for Immigrants and Communities”, the Steering Committee on
Citizenship and Immigration Canada – minority francophone communities and
Statistics Canada for the Committee’s study entitled “Immigration and Official
Language Minority Communities”.
- For the
week of March 17, 2003, the minister of Intergovernmental Affairs regarding his
action plan about official languages.
Later, in March, the
Committee will begin a study entitled: “Part VII of the Official Languages
Act with regard to health care”.
At 10:15 a.m., the sitting
was suspended.
At 10:28 a.m., the
Committee resumed sitting in public, the Vice-Chair, Yolande Thibault,
presiding.
Benoît
Sauvageau moved, -- That the Standing Committee on Official Languages request
the Liaison Committee to make available a budget of $30,000 in order to cover a
portion of the legal fees incurred by Mr Mauril Bélanger for his role as
intervener in Quigley.
After
debate, the question was put on the motion and it was agreed to.
It was
agreed, -- That it be noted in the Minutes of Proceedings that Mauril Bélanger
abstained from voting when the question was put on this motion.
At 10:45 a.m., the
Committee adjourned to the call of the Chair.
Marc-Olivier Girard
Clerk of the Committee