CCA BULLETIN / BULLETIN DE LA CCA
STANDING COMMITTEES - "A WHOLE NEW DYNAMIC"
Ottawa , September 9 2004 - Parliamentarians return to Ottawa in a few weeks, with the new session scheduled to commence on 4 October. This means there will have to be a revision to the pre-Budget consultation schedule for the Standing Committee on Finance, although no one seems to know exactly what the change will entail. The official notification from the Clerk states that "It will be up to the new committee to decide on this when the House returns. The September 9 deadline for submitting briefs has been withdrawn but we encourage you nevertheless to prepare your brief…. I will keep you informed of the decisions made in October." CCA continues with the preparation of its brief and awaits instructions.
In the meantime, there is talk on the Hill that the format and function of standing committees are also about to change. An article in The Hill Times (August 30 - September 5, 2004) speculates a minority government will result in fewer committees with smaller membership (there being only four official parties rather than five). In the last parliamentary session, there were 19 standing committees, including two joint House-Senate ones; this session could have up to 5 fewer ones.
On the other side of the argument, however, are those who would like to see some of the larger committees divided into two or three separate committees so that key issues can be given independent consideration. Such a splitting would result in more committees, rather than fewer.
Committees have two basic functions:
• Reviewing government's spending estimates and examining legislation
• Investigation key issues relating to the departments to which they are linked
Due to the large number of issues covered by some committees, many have established sub-committees. The composition of parliamentary committees is the responsibility of the parties' House leaders and MPs have already been asked which they would like to sit on. In a minority government, Liberal MPs will find the increased workload difficult if the existing committee structure remains in place.
According to Paul Szabo (Liberal MP for Mississauga South) committees "… will probably be watched much more carefully than they ever have in the last ten years simply because … the opposition will have a majority of the votes and that means that government members will have to be in a position of negotiation and compromise. It's going to be a whole new dynamic!" (The Hill Times, August 30 - September 5, 2004 )
BOB BOYE R
It was with shock that the art world learned last week of the sudden death of Bob Boyer of Saskatchewan . A prominent métis visual artist, Bob served on the Board of the CCA from 1996-98. Using a variety of media, including painting on blankets, Bob's paintings combined the traditional design patterns of the Plains Cree people with more contemporary elements. He was also an avid pow-wow dancer, a social activist and, at the time of his death, a professor at the First Nations University of Canada in Regina .
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