An update on Minister Baird and Committee appearances

After reviewing this morning's post “To appear or not to appear? Baird's office assesses the damage”, Baird's press secretary Chris Day provides some more information and context. In addition to providing one more e-mail message from Baird's office to the clerk of the committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO), Day writes: “You'll note in the email that our Director of Parliamentary Affairs provided the committee chair a detailed explanation as to why we preferred to have the Minister appear at a later date than what was being proposed. The Minister has appeared before committees six times since the budget was tabled, including one appearance at OGGO on March 5th. It is our goal to always ensure that the Minister is fully prepared prior to committee meetings in order to provide committee members with as much detailed information as possible.”

Here is the additional e-mail provided by Day and should be read in context with the earlier ones published here.

From: Hamilton, Ben
Sent:Thursday, April 09, 2009 3:53 PM
To:Shamoon, Rana; Michel Marcotte
Cc: Baldwin , Kristin

Subject: RE: OGGO

Hi Michel ,
Just to provide further context to Rana's email , Minister Baird has to present at a cabinet committee in the morning, then presents for Bill C-7 to the Tranpsort Committee in the afternoon , right after Question Period . He also returns to the Transport Committee on Thursday for Main Estimates. The Minister always wants to make sure that he has proper time to prepare for his committee presentations, as he feels that coming unprepared can be a frustrating experience for Committee members and ultimately damage the Minister/Committee relationship. I imagine that there will be a number of opportunities to appear before OGGO for updates as the fiscal year continues, hence our caution on the April 21 st date .

Regards,

Ben Hamilton
Director, Issues Management
Office of the Hon. John Baird