Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Social Affairs, Science and Technology
Issue 1 - Evidence - Meeting of February 11, 2004
OTTAWA, Wednesday, February 11, 2004
The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology met this day at 6:45 p.m., pursuant to rule 88 of the Rules of the Senate, to organize the activities of the committee.
[English]
Mr. Daniel Charbonneau, Clerk of the Committee: Honourable senators, pursuant to the Rules of the Senate, it is my duty to preside over the election of the chair. I am now prepared to accept motions.
Senator Keon: I move that Senator Kirby be elected the chairman of this committee.
Mr. Charbonneau: The Honourable Senator Keon has moved that Senator Kirby do take the chair.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Mr. Charbonneau: I would invite Senator Kirby to take the chair.
Senator Michael Kirby (Chairman) in the Chair.
The Chairman: We need a motion for the deputy chair.
Senator Cordy: I move that Senator LeBreton be elected deputy chair of this committee.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
We need a motion to reconstitute the third member of the steering committee.
Senator Morin: I move that Senator Cordy be the third member of the steering committee.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
With respect to agenda item number 4, it moved by Senator LeBreton that the committee print its proceedings and that the chair be authorized to meet demand.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Agenda item number 5, it is moved by Senator Morin that, pursuant to rule 89, the chair be authorized to hold meetings and to receive and authorize the printing of the evidence when a quorum is not present, provided that a member of the committee from both the government and the opposition be present.
That is only pursuant to hearing evidence, not pursuant to legislation; correct?
Mr. Charbonneau: Yes.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Our next item is number 6, the financial report.
Mr. Charbonneau: All expenses from the last session.
The Chairman: It is moved by Senator Morin that the committee adopt the draft first report, prepared in accordance with rule 104.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Item number 7, research staff. It is moved by Senator LeBreton that the committee ask the Library of Parliament to assign research staff to the committee; that the chair be authorized to seek authority from the Senate to engage the services of such counsel and technical, clerical and other personnel as may be necessary for the purpose of the committee's examination and consideration of such bills, subject matters of bills and estimates as are referred to it; 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.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
What does agenda item number 8 do?
Mr. Charbonneau: It is an authority to commit funds and to certify accounts. It talks about the Financial Administration Act. It gives the committee authority to make disbursements.
The Chairman: Do we have a mover for this item.
Senator LeBreton: I so move, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman: Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Number 9, travel, empowers Senator LeBreton and me, as required, to designate one or more members of the committee to travel on assignment on behalf of the committee.
Do we have a mover for this motion?
Senator Léger: I so move, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Agenda item number 10 is the designation of members traveling on committee business.
Senator Keon: I so move, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman: Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
With respect to item number 11, travelling and living expenses of witnesses, expense does not come off our budget; however, we need a motion to authorize the Senate to pay when we bring witnesses in from out of town.
Senator Morin: I so move, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
Our next agenda item is a motion to allow electronic media coverage of public meetings. By the way, honourable senators, we were the first committee to do that, which is kind of nice.
Does someone wish to move this item?
Senator LeBreton: I so move.
The Chairman: Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
The next item on our agenda refers to the time slot for regular meetings. The time given to this committee is Wednesdays, when the Senate rises but not before 3:30 p.m., and Thursdays, at 11 a.m.
Item number 14 refers to an order of reference. In order to recreate ourselves for the mental health study, I need a motion to seek that order of reference from the Senate. It must be word for word the last order of reference dealing with this issue.
Does someone want to move this item?
Senator Morin: I so move.
The Chairman: Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
I need a motion for item number 15, the budget on the mental health study.
Senator Cordy: I so move, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman: Is it agreed, honourable senators?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
I now need a motion for item number 16, the budget on legislation.
Senator Morin: So moved.
The Chairman: Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
There is a timetable for Bill C-6 — formerly Bill C-13. Let me just give you a short background on this. The list of witnesses has gone through the steering committee — in fact, it has had significant input from more than just the steering committee, such as Senator Roche and a couple of the rest of you. We had all agreed on the list of witnesses. This is repeating the same list of witnesses.
There have been no changes.
The deputy chair and I have worked out a timetable — which begins next Wednesday. A number of you did not want to have the committee sit on Fridays or Mondays, even if the Senate were sitting. There are no Fridays or Mondays. There are two extra sessions, which I would draw your attention to. We will sit next Thursday night, February 19. Even if the Senate does not sit on Friday, February 20, we will sit on Thursday night. That means, of course, that senators cannot travel home until the morning of February 20. The only other extra session is Tuesday evening, the 24th. We will all be here anyway, so no one will be required to come into town for the committee only.
This schedule sticks with all of the witnesses that we had agreed to — even Senator Roche has signed off on it — and still leaves us in a position where no one can argue that we have not done our stuff before the first week of March.
I sent this out to members a long time ago. Can we have a motion that what we have here is the witness list? I need the motion so that, when people start hounding me to adding other names to the list, we do not have to add them.
Senator Morin: I so move.
The Chairman: Agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Carried.
I trust you all have read the memo I gave you on the Chaoulli case. I did so because if we talk to the press it will be useful for us all to respond in the same way. As you know, we have been accepted as interveners over the opposition of the Department of Justice lawyers. In fact, they filed their objection on the day the government was changing so it is obviously not a governmental issue. We are in the process of polishing up our factum. The final version will come out to you in the next week or so. There is no question that this case will start to get some considerable attention.
Senator Keon: Mr. Chairman, I thought we had an understanding that only the chair or deputy chair would speak to the press.
The Chairman: That is right, except, for instance, someone who Senator Robertson knows personally. She talked to them; that it is fine. It is always useful if we all understand where we are coming from.
Just to really make your day, the Canadian Health Coalition and Mr. McBain also got intervener status. Do you remember the guys? So they will hear the sublime and the ridiculous; that is one thing.
Senator LeBreton: And the guy who has the private clinic, the Canby clinic, Dr. Brian Day.
The Chairman: Dr. Day and the CMA and ourselves. It is interesting. Please keep June 8 free — partly because it will be fun for us all to go and partly because I think it is a good idea if we all go. Many of you maybe, including myself — I have only ever once gone to the Supreme Court to hear a case — the original Constitution case back in 1981 — but this will be more to attend a hearing in which we clearly have a direct and abiding interest.
The other thing we will do is draft motion to allow us to sit on the two Wednesdays at 3:30. None of our other meetings will take place when the Senate is sitting. However, in this case, we cannot have the minister and others from out of town sitting around the way we hung around today. We will introduce a motion in the Senate for the next two Wednesdays, to allow us to sit at 3:30 even if the Senate is sitting. We will not do it by way of requiring unanimous consent. We will introduce the motion and debate it properly next week. Those sessions will probably go till 8 o'clock.
I thank you all for your attendance here today.
The committee adjourned.