[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Thursday, March 7, 1996
.1527 
[English]
The Clerk of the Committee: Hon. members, I see a quorum.
[Translation]
Pursuant to Standing Orders 106(1) and 106(2), the first item of business is the election of a Chairperson.
[English]
I'm ready to receive motions to that effect. Mr. Volpe.
Mr. Volpe (Eglinton - Lawrence): It's my pleasure to nominate Mr. Roger Simmons as chair of this committee.
The Clerk: Is there a seconder for that?
Mr. Murphy (Annapolis Valley - Hants): I second that.
[Translation]
Motion carried
[English]
The Clerk: I declare Roger Simmons duly elected chair of the committee and invite him to take the chair.
The Chairman: That was the easiest election yet. I'll ask the clerk to give me a list of the people who voted against me. Otherwise, I thank you.
We'll go directly to the other elections first. Then we'll have some other things to say. We're going to elect the two vice-chairs now. The first vice-chair -
[Translation]
Mr. Daviault (Ahuntsic): I move that Mrs. Pauline Picard be elected Vice-Chair of the committee.
[English]
Mrs. Hayes (Port Moody - Coquitlam): Do we have a nomination?
The Chairman: Yes.
Mrs. Hayes: Could we have a recorded vote, please?
The Chairman: Sure.
Madame Picard has been nominated as the first vice-chair. Are you ready for the question?
.1530
Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings]
The Chairman: I declare Madame Picard, Pauline, elected.
Félicitations.
Now a motion for the other vice-chair is in order.
Mr. Scott: I nominate Beryl Gaffney.
The Chairman: Beryl Gaffney has been nominated as the second vice-chair or the government vice-chair - or whatever you want to call yourself.
Motion agreed to
The Chairman: Congratulations, Beryl. We had thought you were going to be a member of our committee.
As I look around the table, while we have some members from the former committee - to wit, Andy, Paul, John, Sharon, Pauline, and myself - the fact is that a number of the members are new to this committee and it is a new committee. So at least in theory we ought to start from square one in terms of where we shall go from here on the agenda. We won't get into that issue today. I just suggest to you that we should have our first meeting on Tuesday, March 19, at 9 a.m. We in this committee have been in the habit of having our meetings in the morning at 9 o'clock. Unless there are objections to that, I suggest that we should continue doing so.
I'm deliberately skipping next week, because some people who have children in Ontario schools, and, I believe, Quebec schools as well, have the week off.
Is it a holiday in Quebec next week?
An hon. member: No.
The Chairman: In Ontario it's the week coming, and I'm directly affected, as others might be. So we'll have our next meeting on the 19th, if that's agreed.
Some hon. members: Agreed.
The Chairman: We can decide where we shall go in terms of subjects on the agenda.
One of the options open to you, which I want you to bear in mind, is that the former committee had just begun a study on children's health and a lot of preliminary work had been done. Indeed, we got to the stage at which we heard some witnesses and had scheduled a retreat, a two-day event. It was scheduled for early February, but we had to call it off because it appeared as if the House would prorogue, which subsequently happened. So one of the options I'll ask you to consider is that we would pick up that study where it left off and conclude it.
Our thought was to have a study of children's health issues, some of the determinants of health, and make a report to the House, but also produce some kind of a layman's document, a kind of list of dos and don'ts, that we could circulate more widely. Then, even if our report gathers dust, we would have a document that would be of some use to the public, some basic information about children's health.
Does anybody want to add to that in terms of the substance of the study? Have I described it enough?
.1535
So keep that in mind. What we'll do on Tuesday, March 19, is deal with a number of routine motions to give the committee some structure and means of proceeding and then decide where we go from there.
Is there any other order of business right now? Paul.
Mr. Szabo (Mississauga South): Mr. Chairman, I concur. I hope the committee will agree to follow up on our project. If that is the case, we could just alert the clerk that we acquired at least one document for the members as background information, and it would be very useful to the new members.
Secondly, the reason I wanted to speak, Mr. Chair, is that Bill C-222, a private member's bill that calls for health warning labels on the containers of alcoholic beverages -
The Chairman: Standing in the name of?
Mr. Szabo: - myself - and which passed at second reading before prorogation, has been reinstated now as Bill C-222. It's like the pill. A 222 is when you have alcoholic problems.
It has in fact been reinstated. It's on the Order Paper. It has been referred to this committee. It's my request that the committee give this bill attention as soon as possible. If it's acceptable to the committee, if the committee is amenable, since we're going to be delaying our formal proceedings for a couple of weeks, possibly we could commence the process of looking into potential witnesses from groups from both sides. I know groups have already contacted the clerk and research staff about appearing before us. If that's acceptable, I would hope we could proceed at least with setting up that process.
The Chairman: The bill has been referred, so that's good advice.
Otherwise, I'm hesitant to get into any matters of substance today, because there are new members on the committee. In fairness to them we might want to give them an opportunity to find their feet before we get into making decisions about where we go from here. That's why I'm deliberately holding off until Tuesday.
On that issue, if it's the wish of members, we can have Nancy Miller Chenier give us an update on the children's study, so we all know what we're dealing with, because we're going to have to make a decision on it on that Tuesday.
Could you do that - just circulate to all members what the study amounts to and where we are to date and so on?
Ms Nancy Miller Chenier (Committee Researcher): Yes.
The Chairman: Grant.
Mr. Hill (Macleod): Mr. Chairman, one other issue that has surfaced over the time we were recessed is the health protection branch. There are some fairly serious allegations about problems there. A recent television show, The Fifth Estate, talked about Adalat, a specific medication. There are a number of issues: the blood issue, the issue of amalgam fillings. I would certainly like to have those problems looked into, and this committee seems to me like a reasonable forum to do that.
The health protection branch is extremely important to Canadians' health. We trust them. If there are problems there, it's a very serious problem. So I bring this to the committee and place it on the table just as information.
The Chairman: Beryl.
Mrs. Gaffney (Nepean): In light of what Grant is saying, and since I'm a new member of the committee, I wonder if it might be wise to have certain government departments give us a briefing on their department. It would give us the opportunity to do some questioning of them. Then if we deem it necessary we can go into a more in-depth....
I don't know how a new committee member like myself can get a handle on a large department such as the health department quickly. I would appreciate any help I can get; whatever you suggest.
The Chairman: Beryl, on the issue of the briefings from departments, particularly the Department of Health, we're soon going to have the estimates referred to us, and we'll then have an opportunity to bring in people from the various agencies of that department.
But that's not to undermine what Grant has said. I'd suggest what we do on that is for the time being just take note of Grant's suggestion and put it into the cooker when we come back.
Just as you walked in, Grant, I was suggesting we treat today strictly as an organizational meeting - so it was our intention to conclude fairly soon - then come back on Tuesday, March 19, and decide where we go from here.
.1540
I made a pitch for the children's health study simply because we had invested a fair amount of time and money in it. It's part-way done. So we'll look at that on the Tuesday as an option, but we'll also look at your suggestion and other suggestions on that day. Feel free, either now or on the Tuesday, to put forward your individual ideas about what you'd like the committee to do.
We've taken the view in this committee that we get certain things referred from the House, estimates and bills and so on, but it's our decision what areas we study. The two we studied previously, the aboriginal health issue and before that.... No, the tobacco issue was referred by the minister; that's right. The aboriginal health issue is one we in this committee elected to do, as was the children's health issue.
Go ahead, Nancy.
The Clerk: I was just going to say for the new members as well as the members who have been with us for some time, the researchers and myself are in the process of updating the briefing book of the committee. It contains a summary of both activities that occurred in the first session and activities that occurred in the 34th Parliament. It gives some background on the department and so on. That should be ready to be distributed to your offices early next week.
The Chairman: Is there any further business? If not, just let me say I look forward to working with all of you. I have the fondest of memories of our first couple of years together, those of us who remain. As I've done before, I thank you for your comradeship and your indulgence, both of which I've needed from time to time. I look forward to working with you, including the new members of the committee, and particularly with the vice-chairs, Pauline and Beryl. It's good to have you all.
The meeting is adjourned.