Both the Finance committee and C-38 subcommittee will kick off independent, but ultimately complementary reviews of the omnibudget bill this afternoon, with overlapping super-sized sessions set to run from 3:30 to 8:30 pm, and 6:30 to 10pm, respectively.
On the witness list at the main committee: senior officials from virtually every department that will be affected by the legislation, as well as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Canadians for Tax Fairness, the Grain Growers of Canada, Imagine Canada and the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada and blogger Vivian Krause, who has written extensively about alleged foreign funding of Canadian environmental charities.
The subcommittee, meanwhile, will hear from Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Canadian Nuclear Association, the Federation of Ontario Cottagers' Association, the Ontario Commercial Fisheries' Association, the Canadian Construction Association, the Mining Association of Canada and the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.
Given the conflicting schedules, it is, alas, impossible for one liveblogger to cover both meetings at the same time. Instead, I'm going to try to keep track of both rooms through the ParlVu livestreams, which should allow me to monitor interesting and/or noteworthy events in both rooms. That's the plan, anyway. We'll see how it works.
Check back at 6:30 pm for full coverage!
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by Kady O'Malley 5/28/2012 9:11:00 PM
I should probably note that I'm going to be focusing on two particular #omnibudget witnesses tonight: Vivian Krause and Imagine Canada.
Which isn't to say that I won't be keeping an ear on other witnesses, but that's the only potential conflict at the table tonight. #C38
Meanwhile, at Finance, Shelly Glover appears to have taken over the job of answering on the witnesses' behalf. #omnibudget
Seriously, she just, like, butted into an exchange to hector the opposition side for not reading their binders. #omnibudget
Or so she claimed. Anyway. there is grumbling from the other side of the table at the notion that they should just "read the binders." #C38
You really get a sense of how absurdly vast the #omnibudget bill is from watching these poor FInance committee members attempt to study it.
Somehow, Peggy Nash has managed to segue to employment equity and equality. #omnibudget
The trouble is that the question rounds per section of the bill are *so* short. No time to really get into more than one issue, max. #c38
Over at Finance, they've finally made it to employment insurance! Here's an HRDC official explaining the details. #omnibudget
Scott Brison wonders to what extent seasonal businesses and industry were involved in the EI consultation process. #c38
The HRDC staffer doesn't even pretend that specific consultations on these proposals ever happened. It was an ongoing things. #c38
Oh, wait: It seems that today's #omnibudget meetings will be interrupted by bells at 6:30.
Yes, somehow, I completely forgot there were votes tonight. Shouldn't be long. @arun_smith: @kady bells calling for a vote? #omnibudget
So -- two hours to hear eight witnesses. (Possibly less, even, given the bells and the votes.) #omnibudget
Man, did the opposition parties just sleep through #C38 witness selection?
Witness selection in camera. @owenmaco: Please tell me that they stood their ground on the selection process.They did didn't they??? #C38
And there go the bells! Just fifteen minutes, so depending on how long democracy takes, they should be back by 7pm. #c38