Proceedings of the Special Senate Committee on Aging
Issue 1 - Evidence, November 20, 2006
OTTAWA, Monday, November 20, 2006
The Special Senate Committee on Aging met this day at 1:18 p.m., pursuant to rule 88 of the Rules of the Senate, to organize the activities of the committee.
[English]
Francois Michaud, Clerk of the Committee: Honourable senators, I am ready to receive a motion to elect the chair of this committee.
[Translation]
Senator Chaput: I nominate Senator Carstairs for the position of committee Chair.
[English]
Mr. Michaud: Are there any other nominations?
It is moved that Senator Carstairs take the chair of this committee. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Mr. Michaud: I declare Senator Carstairs duly elected chair of this committee.
Senator Sharon Carstairs (Chairman) in the chair.
The Chairman: Thank you, senators. There are a number of procedural motions we must attend to, the first of which is to elect a deputy chair.
Senator Cordy: I wish to nominate Senator Keon for position of deputy chair.
The Chairman: Are there any further nominations?
It has been moved by Senator Cordy that Senator Keon be made deputy chair of the committee. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: We need to establish a Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure. Before I put this motion to you, I wish to tell you that, because we are only seven, except for very minor procedural matters, I should like to have the whole committee act as the steering committee. However, as there will be times when we need to give permission for small matters, I should like one of you to volunteer to be the third member of the steering committee.
Senator Cordy has volunteered to be the third member. Is it agreed, honourable senators, that the chair, the deputy chair and one other member, which we have now designated, will make up the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure and further that the subcommittee be empowered to make decisions on behalf of the committee, with respect to its agenda, to invite witnesses and schedule hearings?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: The fourth order of business is to print the committee's proceedings.
Senator Mercer: I so move.
The Chairman: Senator Mercer has moved that the committee print its proceedings and that the chair be authorized to set the number to meet demand.
All in agreement?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: We need an authorization to hold meetings and print evidence when quorum is not present.
It is moved by Senator Chaput 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 member of the committee from both the government and opposition be present.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: We need a motion for research staff.
It is moved by the Honourable Senator Cordy that the committee ask the Library of Parliament to assign research staff to the committee and that the subcommittee be authorized to retain the services of such counsel, technical, clerical and other personnel as may be required by the work of the committee and that the chair, on behalf of the committee, direct the research staff in preparation of the studies, analyses, summaries and draft reports.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: We need authority to commit funds and certify accounts.
It is moved by the Honourable Senator Mercer that, pursuant to section 32 of the Financial Administration Act, authority to commit funds be conferred individually on the chair, the deputy chair and the clerk of the committee and that, pursuant to section 34 of the Financial Administration Act and guideline 305 of Appendix II of the Rules of the Senate authority for certifying accounts payable by the committee be conferred individually on the chair, the deputy chair and the clerk of the committee.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: The next order of business is travel. Honourable senators, before we move this one, I wish to indicate that I should like to keep travel to an absolute minimum. We will use video conferencing whenever possible, but it is important to get the motion because we will have to do some travel and, no, we will not travel in January.
It has been moved by Senator Chaput that this committee empower the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure to designate committee members and staff, as may be necessary, to travel on assignment on behalf of the committee.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: The next item is designation of members travelling on committee business. It is moved by Senator Cordy that the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be authorized to determine whether any member of the committee is on official business for the purposes of paragraph 8(3)(a) of the Senators' Attendance Policy published in the Journals of the Senate on Wednesday, June 3, 1998; and, consider any member of the committee to be on official business if that member is attending an event or meeting related to the work of the committee or making a presentation related to the work of the committee.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: The next item is travelling and living expenses of witnesses. It is moved by Senator Mercer that, pursuant to the Senate guidelines for witness expenses, the committee may reimburse reasonable travelling and living expenses for one witness from any one organization and that payment will take place upon application but that the chair be authorized to approve expenses for a second witness should there be exceptional circumstances.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Electronic media coverage of public meetings. It is moved by the Senator Chaput that the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be empowered to allow coverage by electronic media at its discretion.
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chairman: Time slot for regular meetings. When we discussed this originally, we had proposed one o'clock, to run from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. A number of senators, however, also have meetings at four o'clock, so with the agreement of senators I should like to set the time frame for these meetings to be from 12:30 to 3:30. That will allow a half-hour break between one set of meetings and the other.
Senator Mercer: Will that be on Mondays?
The Chairman: Yes, on Mondays only, unless we are travelling, but we will discuss that later. So the time slot for regular meetings, moved by Senator Chaput, will be Mondays at 12:30.
Other business. I want to invite a number of people to join us at the table. We should have done that sooner and forgot to do so. A number of people are working with us on this committee. We have Howard Chodos from the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology; Julie Cool, with whom I have worked closely with respect to IPU when Senator Fraser was the head of the women's group at IPU. Julie travelled to all IPU meetings with us, so I got to know her. We also have Michael Toye with us; I have just met Michael today. He is with the Library of Parliament.
If you take a look at the scope of the tentative work plan they have proposed for us, as well as a large binder, which you will be presented with in a few minutes, you will get some idea of how competent a group we will have working with us through all of this.
The order of reference is the order of reference that we have presented to the Senate and for which we have approval. What we have done in this document is give you an overview of what we see at this stage as the major issues — beginning on page 2, Canada's diverse seniors — because I thought it was important that we not treat seniors as a monolithic group. They are as diverse as the rest of Canada's population.
The issues we have identified are as follows: demographic projections; federal, provincial and territorial responsibilities; active participation in society and economic life; financial security; paid and unpaid work for caregivers; retirement; coping with an aging health care workforce; lifelong learning; health promotion; chronic diseases; mental health, medication availability and use; falls and injuries; palliative and end of life care, which no one here will be surprised to see; abuse and neglect; housing; home care and home support services; long-term and nursing care; transportation; and international comparisons.
What we would like to do, if it meets with the approval of this committee, is to give a general okay — we say ``finalize the work plan'' on page 13. We would have hearings from November 27 to December 11, possibly also in February, if necessary, but that is not our plan at this point.
What I really would like to do, if there is agreement, would be to prepare a report for late-February. This is strategic on my part because I think we may be into an election campaign. What I want to do with that report is not make any recommendations; I want to ask a whole series of questions, which we then can get out to the public so we can get more input from them as to whether they think we are in the right direction and are looking at the right issues with respect to aging.
However, I am practical and I would like to also, if we will have a writ and we will have to go back to the Senate with a new reference, to be able to say this is why this study is as important, if not more important, than when it was originally approved as a reference by the Senate of Canada. If we can get that report done in that framework, we can do an effective job of presenting the issues — but, obviously, no answers. That will be the second phase of the study, in which we try to find answers to some of the difficult questions that we are going to ask.
Senator Cordy: I think that works extremely well. After we have sessions, it becomes more focussed and people know the areas we are looking at. I think if the people who are experts in the area know ahead of time about the kinds of things we are looking for, they are more willing to add on to it. It worked very well when we were doing our health report and had an issues and option paper.
The Chairman: Are there any other comments? Is there any other business that any senator would like to raise at this time?
Senator Cordy: I have one comment. I know we do not have people who will be appearing before our committees in place, but I want to ensure that we have representation from across the country. Obviously, I would like to hear people from Atlantic Canada, which is where I am from, but I make that generalization for the whole of Canada, so that we are not just talking with people from Ontario and Quebec.
The Chairman: No, absolutely.
Just to give you an example, we do have witnesses for next Monday. We had some preliminary conversations with the idea that if we were to have some witnesses next week, would people be available? We know right now that some will be available.
We will have Dr. Brian Spencer, Department of Economics at McMaster University; we have asked for Statistics Canada, but they have not yet confirmed; we do not have Dr. Susan McDaniel, Professor of Sociology, confirmed, but she hopes she will be able to make it. We also hope that the National Advisory Council on Aging will be able to make it, as well as the National Aboriginal Health Organization. That is where we are heading for our meeting next Monday.
My hope, honourable senators, is that we will be able to let you know no later than Wednesday whether we have final appearances by witnesses, so that you can make your plans accordingly when you are leaving on Thursday. You can make plans to be back here on Monday if we have a full slate of witnesses ready and able to appear before us on very short notice at that time.
Are there any other ideas? For your information, in terms of budgeting, there is always an emergency $10,000 budget for every committee. We will immediately put in a request for that $10,000 amount. I will come back to you at a future meeting with respect to a broader budget, but I anticipate that the budget for this fiscal year will be small. We probably cannot do it for the $10,000, but I think we can do it with less than $20,000 by the end of March. Then we can look toward a more fulsome budget for the next fiscal year.
The committee adjourned.