Agriculture Committee on Oct. 29th, 2013

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

No. If I may, I think the order would be that the committee establishes when it's going to do clause-by-clause review, so we're going to know the date when it's going to start clause-by-clause review. The chair then writes each of the independents to advise them that the agriculture committee is going to do clause-by-clause review on bill such-and-such. They then have to submit any amendments to the bill 48 hours in advance of the clause-by-clause consideration.

They can then come to the committee, sit at the table only to present why it is they are submitting it and why it is they want the committee to vote in favour of their amendment. Then the committee votes on all the amendments proposed by us, by them, and by the independents, as we normally do as a committee. That's how it would work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

I have a question. There have been times when a report takes a week to go through, so is it the intent that the independents would come in and if they had a number of amendments they would list their amendments and be part of that? Or do they stay for the whole duration of the report to put in their amendments? I'm asking for clarification.

Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Again, I'll just go back to Finance. I think what we had is that they would stay and actually insert their amendments at the appropriate time in the bill, so they may be there for the whole time. If they only have one amendment to make and if you can give them a guideline of when that amendment would be coming up, I think that would be fair to any member, so they can budget their time accordingly. But if they have four or five amendments, then they would probably have to wait until the amendments come up in our normal dealings with that bill, as opposed to the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Are there any thoughts?

Mr. Allen, and then Mr. Eyking.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

I have a question. I'm sure the other side will clarify it for me.

We're talking, I assume, because I don't have a hard copy in front of me, so I'm trying to do it from hearing....

[A voice]

There should have been one.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

If I do, I've shuffled it underneath something, perhaps.

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Turn the page over, Malcolm. You have a page there—

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Okay. Fair enough.

I believe the intent is that we're talking about the clause-by-clause of a bill—

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

That's right.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

—not a report.

[A voice]

That's correct.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

Okay. So recognizing that we've been abnormally busy with legislation in this committee, and I say that not because we don't like to do it, but because we just don't do it that often.... It's very rare. I've been here since 2008, with Alex. To be honest, this term had probably the most legislation the agriculture committee might have done in 10 years, to be truthful, because we very seldom do legislation. We tend to do reports, so as for the likelihood of this applying at any moment in time, it's highly unlikely.

If I'm correct—and I heard the “yes” from the other side—this is just about clause-by-clause of a piece of legislation—

[A voice]

That's correct. Yes.

[Malcolm Allen, NDP, Welland, ON]

—nothing more than that.

I'm getting “yes” from that side, so that clarifies the question.

I'll turn it back to you, Chair. I know you wanted to go to Mr. Eyking. But I'm certainly going to make some comments to the actual motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

We tend to lose the voices here every once in a while, I think. You were on and then you left—which is fine; I can still hear you. But I don't know if the translation is working or not.

Okay? So we understand that, and it may not.... It is a good point, and it isn't about reports; it is about bills.

So the first part of that would change...?

[A voice]

It's up to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Oh. Then if it's up to me, I suggest that we leave it as “clerk of the committee”.

You had a concern about the 48 hours.

[The Clerk]

If we start clause-by-clause at a Tuesday meeting, we would receive the amendments on Sunday. It's your choice.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

On the reason for “clerk”, let's say, for example, you're travelling, Chair, on other business with the House of Commons and you're gone for a week. Well, it doesn't necessarily mean that the legislation will stop. The person who is always here is the clerk.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

I'm wondering, I don't know if it's just mine or not, but I'm not getting....

[Bob Zimmer, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

Mine's been going off and on, too.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Okay. I'm going to leave it as it is.

We have a motion on the floor put forward by Mr. Zimmer.

Oh, sorry, Mark.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

From all the years I've been here, I think this opens the door for independents. I think it's the start of showing some respect for all members of Parliament, right? It doesn't matter if you're independent or if you belong to a party. I wonder if it's opening the door enough. If you say it's for a bill, and in 90% of our time we're doing reports.... I don't know, maybe we can be a little more ambitious in the agriculture committee. I'm using a hypothetical situation. Let's say we're doing a report that is very particular to a riding that an independent sits on. Why couldn't we have that independent come here during the report, rather than just bills? I'm just throwing that out.

This is very specific, that they can come, but only for a bill, for legislation. But technically, they're still not allowed to have any input into a report, and the report could have a lot of bearing on what's happening in their riding. Why don't we leave that to the discretion of the chair, or whatever, that if a report is being done and an independent asks to be invited, if the report is of particular interest to them or their riding, we could have the discretion to let them come to committee when we're at the final stages of the report, and to also introduce some clauses?

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Mr. Lemieux.