Proceedings of the Special Senate Committee on
Transportation Safety
and Security
Issue 1 - Evidence
OTTAWA, Thursday, June 18, 1998
The Special Senate Committee on Transportation Safety met this day at 10:45 p.m. to organize the activities of the committee.
[English]
Mr. Denis Robert, Clerk of the committee: Honourable senators, we have a quorum.
As clerk of your committee, it is my duty to preside over the election of the chairman, and I am ready to receive motions to that effect.
Senator Bacon: I move that Senator Forrestall chair the special committee.
Mr. Robert: It is moved by the Honourable Senator Bacon, seconded by the Honourable Senator Adams, that the Honourable Senator Forrestall be Chairman of the committee.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Mr. Robert: I declare the motion carried. In accordance with rule 89 of the Rules of the Senate, the Honourable Senator Forrestall is elected Chairman of the committee.
I invite the honourable senator to take the Chair.
Senator J. Michael Forrestall (Chairman) in the Chair.
The Chairman: I thank you, colleagues.
The first item on our agenda is the election of a deputy chair.
Senator Johnson: I move that Senator Adams be the Deputy Chair of the special committee.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
The next item on the agenda is the appointment of a Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure.
Senator Bacon: Honourable senators, I move:
That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be composed of the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman and one other member of the committee to be designated after the usual consultation;
That the subcommittee be empowered to make decisions on the part of the committee with respect to its agenda, to invite witnesses and schedule hearings; and
That the subcommittee report its decisions to the committee.
I also move, Mr. Chairman, that Senator Fitzpatrick be the third member on the steering committee.
Senator Adams: I second those motions.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motions?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motions carried.
Honourable senators, we need the usual motion to print the committee's proceedings.
Mr. Robert: I will check on the number of copies that we used to print.
The Chairman: Very well. The clerk will look at the number of copies we printed in our previous work. That number seemed to be all right. Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Colleagues, I need a motion to hold meetings and to print evidence when a quorum is not present.
Senator Johnson: Honourable senators, I move:
That, pursuant to rule 89, the Chair be authorized to hold meetings, to receive and authorize the printing of the evidence when a quorum is not present, provided that a representative of each party is present.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
I now need a motion for research staff.
Senator Adams: Honourable senators, I move:
That the committee ask the Library of Parliament to assign research officers to the committee;
That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be authorized to retain the services of such experts as may be required by the work of the committee; and
That the Chair, on behalf of the committee, direct the research staff in the preparation of studies, analyses, summaries and draft reports.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
Colleagues, we also need authority to commit funds and certify accounts.
Senator Johnson: Honourable senators, I move:
That, pursuant to section 32 of the Financial Administration Act, authority to commit funds be conferred on the Chairman or, in the Chairman's absence, the Deputy Chairman; and
That, pursuant to section 34 of the Financial Administration Act and Guideline 3:05 of Appendix II of the Rules of the Senate, authority for certifying accounts payable by the committee be conferred on the Chairman, the Deputy Chairman and the Clerk of the committee.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
I now need a motion relating to travel.
Senator Fitzpatrick: Honourable senators, I move:
That the committee empower the Chair to designate, as required, one or more members of the committee and/or such staff as may be necessary to travel on assignment on behalf of the committee.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
Colleagues, the next item on the agenda deals with travelling and living expenses for witnesses.
Senator Johnson: Honourable senators, I move:
That, pursuant to the Senate guidelines for witnesses' expenses, the committee may reimburse reasonable travelling and living expenses for no more than two witnesses from any one organization, and payment will take place upon application.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
The next item relates to the budget of the committee. I need a motion stating that the chair be authorized to seek, as required, authorization from the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration to incur expenses up to $10,000 on an emergency basis.
Before we deal with that motion, the clerk has prepared for our consideration tonight a budget that would carry us well into the fall. We have one or two major things to do this summer prior to the Senate resuming sittings in the fall. We have the fortunate situation whereby the Internal Economy Committee is meeting tomorrow to finish up work that has been ongoing. That committee is prepared to hear our request for funds so that we will have emergency funding to tide us through the summer.
This budget covers some of the basic things we will have to put in place. The primary element is to attend a conference that, after much discussion and based upon practical experience, we have found to be very educational, informative and up to date with respect to what is going on in all of the modes of transport -- rail, trucking, air, marine, and so on. We have outlined in this budget sufficient funds to cover that trip.
With so many new members on the committee, I think it is important that committee members expose themselves early in our work to a good indoctrination.
I will ask Mr. Carson to briefly explain the conference.
Mr. Bruce Carson, Advisor to the committee: This is an international conference on transportation safety held annually in Washington. Senator Forrestall, myself and the library researcher attended it two years ago when we were first getting under way, and we found it very useful. We thought as a beginning to this portion of the study that it would be useful for senators to attend the conference and perhaps stay for another day in Washington. Alternatively, we could group meetings with various officials dealing with transportation safety around the time in Washington.
Before the last general election, some members of the committee actually travelled to Washington. Senators Adams and Forrestall, along with some staff, found it incredibly useful.
The Chairman: Colleagues, I need a motion to approve the interim budget so that I can present it tomorrow to Internal Economy.
I would draw your attention to item no. 2 under "Professional and Other Services" and indicate that it is a major goal of Internal Economy that Senate committees, the jewels of our process here, expose themselves as broadly as possible to the media in order to tell people what we are doing. To that end, I ask you to think about communications over the summer. Hopefully, when we come together in the early fall, we will be able to put together a communications agenda. We are not doing enough.
On some occasions -- and Senator Bacon will agree -- we have made great steps in our communications. However, at other times, had the press sat in with us and followed what we were doing, we might have had a lot more publicity.
We will ask the Library of Parliament if we can have the services of John Christopher, who is probably the senior transportation research officer in the Library of Parliament. Mr. Keith Miller will assist us in certain areas of air transportation. I ask you to give some thought over the summer to hiring a highway trucking consultant early in the fall to assist us in developing that phase of our studies.
This study originated with our former colleague Senator Keith Davey, who wanted initially to look at the carnage on the highways from trucking. We could not just look at trucking alone because there were interprovincial jurisdictional problems. We expanded our study, and here we are.
With those few comments, could I ask for approval of the budget?
Senator Adams: I so move.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
We have one other motion on our agenda.
Senator Johnson: Honourable senators, I move:
That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be empowered to allow electronic media coverage of public meetings.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: I declare the motion carried.
Senator Bacon: Mr. Chairman, I may not be able to stay with the special committee, but I have asked for a replacement. Senator Butts would be very happy to join honourable colleagues on the special committee, so I will be replaced by Senator Butts.
The Chairman: Is it agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Senator Fitzpatrick: I was advised that my membership on the committee would be on an interim basis. I may not be staying on with the committee. I will look at my program and let members know at a later date. I merely wanted you to be aware of that.
The Chairman: Thank you for that.
The committee adjourned.