Proceedings of the Standing Senate Committee on
Social Affairs, Science and Technology
Issue 1 - Evidence - Meeting of November 14, 2007
OTTAWA, Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology met this day at 4:07 p.m., pursuant to rule 88 of the Rules of the Senate, to organize the activities of the committee.
[English]
Barbara Reynolds, Clerk of the Committee: Honourable senators, as clerk of your committee, it is my duty to preside over the election of a chair.
[Translation]
I am ready to receive a motion to that effect.
[English]
Are there any nominations for the position of chair?
Senator Keon: I nominate Senator Eggleton.
Ms. Reynolds: It is moved by the Honourable Senator Keon that the Honourable Senator Eggleton do take the chair of this committee. It is your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
Ms. Reynolds: I declare the motion carried.
[Translation]
I invite Honourable Senator Eggleton to take the chair.
[English]
Senator Art Eggleton (Chair) in the chair.
The Chair: Thank you very much for your support in my continuing as chair of this great committee that has done so many marvellous things down through the years in many subjects relevant to social affairs.
We now can move down the agenda of the organizing committee. We have come to item 2, and that is the election of the deputy chair. Senator Pépin nominates Senator Keon as Deputy Chair. Are there any others? No, that is it.
It is moved by the Honourable Senator Pépin that the Honourable Senator Keon be deputy chair of the committee. All those in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: The motion is carried. Senator Keon, congratulations. The team is back.
There is one more member to add to the team. Item 3 is the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure, and that is where a third person joins Senator Keon and me. Can we have a motion to establish the subcommittee? We do not need the name at this point; we need only to establish the subcommittee.
Senator Cordy: I move that we establish the subcommittee.
The Chair: Are there any other comments? All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Contra opinions? That motion is carried. Now we can appoint someone.
Senator Keon: I nominate Senator Pépin.
The Chair: Senator Pépin has been nominated, in collusion. Senator Pépin has been nominated to be a member of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure, along with the chair and the deputy chair. Is that agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Carried. That item completes the personnel.
Now we have an item to print the committee's procedures and that the chair be authorized to set the number to meet the demand. Can I have a motion on that?
Senator Cochrane: So moved.
The Chair: So moved by Senator Cochrane. All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Contra opinions? That motion is carried.
Item 5 is the authorization to hold meetings and to print evidence in quorum that is not present, pursuant to rule 89, the chair be authorized to hold meetings, to receive and authorize the printing of evidence, et cetera. Can I have a motion on that item?
Senator Munson: So moved.
The Chair: That motion is carried.
Item 6 is that the committee adopt the draft first report prepared in accordance with rule 104. This report is on money that we supposedly spent before, right?
Hon. Senators: Yes.
The Chair: This item constitutes the first report of the committee. I have noticed other committees coming in with this, too. Are there any questions or comments on that report? Can I have a motion, then, on the financial report? Senator Pépin moves it. All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Contrary, if any?
That motion is carried.
Item 7 is to ask the Library of Parliament to assign analysts to the committee and that the Chair be authorized to take authority from the senator and engage services of such counsel, technical, et cetera. Shall I dispense with the clause on the subcommittee? Okay, dispense. Can I have motion on research staff?
Senator Callbeck: So moved.
The Chair: Any further comments. All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: That motion is carried.
Welcome, Senator Brown. This is his first meeting of the committee. Welcome to the committee. We elected you to a bunch of positions in your absence.
Senator Brown: My apologies; I had an appointment downstairs. I should not have been late but I could not finish it. Thank you.
Hon. Senators: A fine addition.
The Chair: From Alberta.
We are on item 8, which is authority to commit funds and certify accounts, pursuant to section 32 of the Financial Administration Act, et cetera. We can dispense with all of that. It is standard stuff again. Senator Trenholme Counsell, do you have any comments or questions? All in favour? That motion is carried.
Item 9 is travel: That the committee empower the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure to designate one or more members of the committee to travel on assignment on behalf of the committee. It is moved by Senator Munson. Are there any questions or comments? All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Item 10 is the designation of members traveling on committee business: that the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be authorized to determine whether any member of the committee is on "official business'' —
Senator Pépin: Dispense.
The Chair: Thank you. We do not have Senator Cook in here yet. Shall we bring the honourable senator in here? Senator Cook moves this item. All those in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Opposed if any? That motion is carried. Item 11 is traveling and living expenses of witnesses: "pursuant to the Senate guidelines for witness expenses, the Committee may reimburse reasonable traveling. . . .'' Dispense? Senator Brown will move that motion. Are you sure he wants to? Senator Brown moves it. Is there any further discussion? All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Item 12 is electronic media coverage of public meetings: "That the chair to be authorized to seek permission from the Senate to permit coverage of electronic media,'' et cetera. Senator Pépin moves the motion.
Is there any further discussion? It is carried.
Now, item 13 is for information. It is the time slot for the regular meetings and it is the same time slot we have had before — Wednesday, 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., which we are in right now, and also Thursday at 10:45 a.m. until 1 p.m. Generally, in accordance with what we have done before, it would be largely the Subcommittee on Population Health on Wednesdays and then the Subcommittee on Cities on Thursdays. However, either one of them can be pre-empted by the whole committee on other subject matters we need to deal with.
Those are the two time slots. At this point, let me introduce the people who staff this committee, since we have now officially said they could be here.
I think you all remember Barbara Reynolds, our committee clerk. We are delighted to have her back. We have Tracy Amendola, who is the administrative assistant. She is new. Brian O'Neal is our top researcher. He is responsible for the full committee's deliberations as well as the cities subcommittee. Havi Echenberg is a researcher on the cities. Welcome, Havi. On population health, researchers are Odette Madore and Michael Toye. Then we have Alexandre Asselin who is the Senate communications officer.
Welcome to all of you, and we look forward to working with you. These people will make our deliberations meaningful, so it is nice that this line-up of people is good.
On to other business: We need to talk about our work plan, and we also need to have a motion formally to create the subcommittees. Maybe I will address the subcommittees first. I have two motions. Does everyone have them?
Ms. Reynolds: We have distributed them.
The Chair: These motions are to create the two subcommittees we have had previously: the Subcommittee on Population Health and the Subcommittee on Cities. We also need to go back to the Senate on both subcommittees with a renewal of the previous mandate from the Senate.
First, dealing with Population Health, I need to record the members. Who are they?
Ms. Reynolds: They are Senator Keon, Senator Pépin, Senator Cook, Senator Cochrane, Senator Fairbairn and Senator Callbeck. They were the members in the last session.
Senator Pépin: We need men.
The Chair: You have the chair. You have one down at the end of table. Senator Brown, were you interested in the Population Health subcommittee as opposed to the Cities subcommittee?
Senator Brown: Mr. Chairman, please explain the difference. I am not familiar with the terms of what Population Health would be composed of in comparison to the other one.
The Chair: We will send you information about the work of the two subcommittees and you can decide at that point in time. You do not need to make that decision today and it is only fair that we give you information that will help you.
At this time, can we establish the Subcommittee on Population Health with the people who were on it before? Then we will deal with the question later of whether Senator Brown wishes to sit on this committee or the other one. You have the motion that establishes the subcommittee. Is that agreed?
Ms. Reynolds: Who moved it?
Senator Cochrane: I so moved.
The Chair: Moved by Senator Cochrane. For the Subcommittee on Cities, the membership last time was comprised of which senators?
Ms. Reynolds: They were Senator Eggleton, Senator Champagne, Senator Cordy, Senator Munson and Senator Trenholme Counsell.
The Chair: We have the same people now. We may need one modification depending on Senator Brown's decision. We may need Senator Keon, for example, or someone from the Conservative side to sit on the subcommittee for the next little while until Senator Champagne comes back. She was the Deputy Chair of the Subcommittee on Cities. She is not in a position to come back to the committee until early next year due to health matters. We can put Senator Keon on pro tem until Senator Champagne comes back. Otherwise, we do not have anyone from the Conservative side of the house.
Senator Pépin: It may be some time before she is able to come back.
The Chair: She told me January. Is that agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: That motion is carried.
Ms. Reynolds: Who moved it?
The Chair: Senator Pépin.
Now, let us look at the work plan here. We also have another matter: attendance of senators' staff at in-camera meetings:
That each committee member be allowed to have staff persons present at in camera meetings unless there is a decision for a particular meeting to exclude all staff.
This motion is a usual one.
Ms. Reynolds: Otherwise, we would need to make that motion at the beginning of every in camera meeting.
The Chair: If we do it now, we do not need to do it again?
Ms. Reynolds: We are good to go.
The Chair: Let us do it. Is that agreed? All in favour?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: That motion is carried. Let us go to the work plan. Work plan is generally something we discuss in camera. Is that okay?
Ms. Reynolds: We have a decision to go in camera.
The Chair: We have made a decision to go in camera. Is that agreed?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Our personal staff are allowed to stay.
Ms. Reynolds: Do you wish to have the court reporters stay? Usually when you have this kind of meeting you do not have them stay unless the committee wishes an actual transcript of this.
The Chair: Do you want a transcript? Normally we would not do that. They are free to go.
The committee continued in camera.