Mr. Zimmer.
Evidence of meeting #2 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #2 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would just like to make a motion that the orders of questions for the first round of questioning should be as follows—
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Sorry, my mistake.
This is from the House respecting bills:
That, in relation to Orders of Reference from the House respecting Bills,
(a) the Clerk of the Committee shall, upon the Committee receiving such an Order of Reference, write to each Member who is not a member of a caucus represented on the Committee to invite those Members to file, in a letter to the Chair of the Committee, in both official languages, any amendments to the Bill, which is the subject of the said Order, which they would suggest that the Committee consider;
(b) suggested amendments filed, pursuant to paragraph (a), at least 48 hours prior to the start of clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill to which the amendments relate shall be deemed to be proposed during the said consideration, provided that the Committee may, by motion, vary this deadline in respect of a given Bill; and
(c) during the clause-by-clause consideration of a Bill, the Chair shall allow a Member who filed suggested amendments, pursuant to paragraph (a), an opportunity to make brief representations in support of them.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Mr. Chair, I think the opposition has a copy as well.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
I never read the details, but what does this change from what our standard procedure is?
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
It allows members who are independents, or not in a recognized party per se, to come in and make amendments to a bill at committee level instead of doing it in the House at report stage. They'd have the ability to come in and present their amendment and discuss it here in the committee instead of waiting until report stage in the House and then trying to submit it at that time.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
It gives an opportunity to independent members to be part of a bill before it hits the House. It allows them to sit as a witness and have a brief time to talk about their amendments. I don't see a stated time.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I don't think it would be a witness. It would be just like any other member around the committee. They would sit at the table next to Mr. Eyking and they would present their amendment and maybe speak to it for a few minutes. We'd debate it and then we'd vote on whether we wanted to accept it or not.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
The difference in having an independent that a party may want to have sit at the table is that the party gives up one person for that independent to sit. But in this case it is different. We're saying no one has to give up that seat. We're asking them to come in and sit not as a witness but at the table, to present an amendment that the committee would have a chance to discuss and then vote on.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I just wanted to say what Mr. Hoback said. It's to give the independent member a voice at committee that they normally wouldn't have. That's essentially the bottom line.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Are there any further questions?
It's moved by Mr. Hoback....
Okay. This is a suggestion, and I'm open for discussion. I don't know if this is....
You can help me, Michel.
In relation to the orders of reference, in the motion, point (a) has that “the clerk of the committee shall, upon the committee receiving”, and Michel is suggesting that, in a legal way, it should be the committee or the chair, not him.
3:50 p.m.
The Clerk
It would be the chair. I think it would be better if the chair of the committee writes to other members.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
So the clerk would get notified by the independent member. The clerk then would notify me and a letter would then go to me. I mean, it's going to slow it down a bit.