Taking It to the Hill: The Complete Guide to Appearing Before Parliamentary Committees

INTRODUCTION

Appearing before a parliamentary committee is like meeting your in-laws for the first time. Now is not the time to make a bad impression. What you say, how you say it and even how you look counts. By targeting parliamentary committees, this guide assists you to make a positive impression and achieve your public policy objectives on the Hill. The many standing committees of the House of Commons and Senate are where the parliamentary debate truly involves Canadians. This is the place where backbenchers have virtually an exclusive domain: the standing committees of the House of the Commons. To be complete, Senate committees are included as well. (Seeappendix for a list of standing committees .) Taking your message to Parliament Hill (and getting heard) means, increasingly, getting in front of one or more of them. Thousands do. About 5,000 witnesses a year parade through a parliamentary committee.1 "Witnesses, without distinction, are quite simply at the mercy of the committee." - Diane Davidson, General Legal Counsel for the House of Commons before the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations, November 17, 1994 XI THE TASK AT HAND INTRODUCTION XII I TAKING IT TO THE HILL If you appear before such a parliamentary committee, do you know the rules? Is your presentation up to standard? Do you really know why you are going before the committee?Are you really at its mercy? Your challenge is knowing the agenda, the players, the process and rules of engagement. That is only the beginning. This only positions you for the real task at hand: using this knowledge to deliver your story, to get it understood and, hopefully, to influence decisions in Ottawa. You've got competition. Combined, MPs and Senators are exposed to a couple of thousand of hours of committee testimony each year!2 Your 60 minutes have to stand out. Here is where wins and losses arepossible. CAN HELP ME OR HURT ME? "We made a report to the House of Commons, which was considered by the finance minister in his budget, and probably 90% of what we had in our report was in that budget last year." -Jim Peterson (L), Chair, Standing Committee on Finance, November 30, 1995 Parliamentary committees can advance your cause depending, of course, on what side of the issue you are on. Consider this sampling of committee activity: • Tax: Responding to disgruntled retailers, the Standing Senate Committee on Banking, Trade and Commerce prompted the government to amend the controversial harmonized sales tax legislation after hearing from nearly 200 groups in Atlantic Canada. Said the Retail Council of Canada: "The committee has saved the retail industry $100 million in adjustment costs."3 • Environment: After the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development tabled 75 amendments to the Endangered Species Act, a Globe and Mail business columnist declared that its chair "managed to adopt just about every change pushed by environmentalists and ignore every proposal put forward by people with an interest in human economic development."4 • Human Rights: The House Standing Committee on Justice recommended to the justice minister to drop electronic monitoring of highCOMMITTEES XIII risk offenders. The minister agreed. The issue, and the decision, pitted civil libertariansand defence lawyersagainst police officers and victims' groups.5 • Natural Resources: The Standing Committee on Fisheries was unanimous in their pursuit of senior scientists at the Department of Fisheries—those who were seen to be responsible for destroying the Atlantic fishery. Members were making national headlines to get officials fired.6 • Social Issues: Cutting a last-minute deal with the Senate Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, the government pulled a child support bill from the brink of being lost by agreeing to amend its guidelines after one "renegade" senator lined up vigorous opposition from groups wanting changes to shared custody rules.7 • Human Resources: A recommendation from the House Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration urged that certain technology jobs be exempted from the usual rigorous application process to attract these high-skilled workers. The work of this committee expedited getting foreign high-tech workers to Canada to fill vacant technology jobs here.8 "Committees play a far more important role than the public perceives." -The Rt. Hon. Joe Clark (PC), former Prime Minister, Interview, July 23, 1997 Committees can be thought-provoking. They can take the initiative and get out ahead on issues.9 Bills are tackled here. It...