QUESTION PERIOD — Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency
Business of the Committee
March 23, 2022
Honourable senators, I have a question for Senator Boniface in her role as Joint Chair of the Special Joint Committee on the Declaration of Emergency.
I noticed from the first report filed that you have had your initial meetings. You have some timelines with which to work, you now know your colleagues and so on. I appreciate that there may be things that you can and can’t say, but could you give us your take on how things might go and your sense of your and the committee’s ability to get the job done as was envisioned?
Thank you, Senator Tannas, for the question. As you know, the report I filed yesterday dealt with the meeting that took place on March 13, during which we were able to have the organizational meeting, as you’ve said, and the joint chairs had to be formally elected, as did the vice-chairs.
I want to assure members of the Senate that they are very well represented by Senator White, Senator Harder and Senator Carignan as our vice-chair. We have a number of routine motions that we’ve dealt with. We will deal with some others on Thursday night, which is the evening of our next meeting.
I feel reassured, having met my co-chairs, Mr. Green and Mr. Fortin, that we are all agreed on moving this process forward. I met other members of the committee, and I believe that there is a lot of commitment to get the process moving and to ensure that we do a fulsome job. I remain optimistic, and I’m reassured by the people I’ve met at the table.
