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 BOYER

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 .

COMMUNICATIONS QUESTIONNAIRE

CCA mem­bers will have received a ques­tion­naire in the lat­est issue of Bliz­zart.    We invite you to com­plete the ques­tion­naire and to return it by fax to CCA at 238 4849, or by mail to 804 –130 Albert Street , Ottawa , Ontario K1P 5G4 .   We want to ensure you receive com­mu­ni­ca­tions which are use­ful, rel­e­vant, and timely, so please let us know what works and what could be improved.