library of parliament committee

So, remember that unanimous committee report on the Parliamentary Budget Office? Turns out that the in camera negotiations played out pretty much exactly as ITQ suspected, right down to the part where it was, indeed, the Liberals — or, at least, the Liberals on that particular committee  — that ultimately came down on the same side as the government on the question of whether the PBO should be liberated from the Library of Parliament.

ITQ will confess right here and now that she has no idea what to expect from today’s meeting, but since the NDP made such a big deal about it at Finance yesterday afternoon, we couldn’t very well skip out on our PBOWatching duties, now could we?

I should point out that it actually turned out to be far more interesting than expected – newsworthy, even – when the head librarian – the Librarian himself, William Young – implored the committee to do whatever it can to ensure that the next round of amendments to the Copyright Act (which, incidentally, have been languishing on the Order Paper for months because the government is pretty well resigned to the fact that the bill is doomed) include a fair use exemption for the Library of Parliament, so that it won’t be stifled from providing necessary services to parliamentarians. In fact, he even pitched a similar dispensation for all libraries. Not a bad tactic – and definitely a welcome ally for the Canadian Library Association, which has been fighting for genuinely fair fair dealings rules for years.

11:47:49 AM