Canadian Heritage Committee on Feb. 2nd, 2009

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Is it the will of the members that Mr. Del Mastro withdraw?

(Motion withdrawn)

Ms. Lavallée.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Mr. Chair, have we finished with the routine motions? I would like to know if there is anything else on the agenda today or if I can now bring up the action plan.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Del Mastro put forward earlier that right after our routine motions he would talk about a motion to this committee that, if we're going to discuss it, needs unanimous consent. If we don't have unanimous consent, then we can talk about some further business.

First of all, I'm going to take Mr. Del Mastro's motion that I have in front of me, which is that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage welcome the Honourable James Moore to speak for one hour to the committee members on February 9, to introduce himself to the committee as the new Minister of Canadian Heritage, to share with the committee the work he has undertaken since becoming the Minister of Canadian Heritage, and to discuss the future business of the committee.

This is a motion. Do I have unanimous consent that we could go forward with this motion?

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

There is no unanimous consent.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

It has to be 48 hours, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay.

Mr. Del Mastro.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As long as the Bloc members understand that I couldn't bring this motion until next Monday, which is the time the minister would be available to come, and then we've got a break week after that, that's fine. But don't complain later that the minister hasn't been here.

[Carole Lavallée, Bloc, Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC]

That's your own rule.

[Dean Del Mastro, Conservative, Peterborough, ON]

No, it's not my own rule. It was a rule established by the committee.

As long as the Bloc members are okay with the understanding that the minister would like to come. Don't come later and say that the minister hasn't come when you've asked him to come, because the minister has offered to come and appear before the committee. My understanding is that it could be next Monday, or we could rearrange the schedule to be here next Wednesday. But beyond that, if you're not prepared to hear the motion and vote on the motion, then don't come back later and complain that the minister hasn't appeared before committee. I do believe you've got a number of issues you'd like to raise with the minister, and he would be prepared to take those questions.

When I moved the motion, I did remove the words “for one hour” when I read it earlier. But that said, if you're not prepared to hear the motion now, in fact I probably won't table it again on Wednesday because we're past the timeline that we've established and I'll have to go back to the department and determine when the minister could appear. At that point, we'll probably be into a study and it will be up to us when we'd like the minister to appear, and then we'll be into talking to officials about when his schedule would permit.

So the question is, if you would like the minister to be here, then I need unanimous consent to waive it. If you don't want the minister to appear right now and defer that until some later date, whenever that will be, that's fine. You just have to understand the consequences of not allowing the motion to be tabled, that's all.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Bruinooge and then Ms. Glover.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

I assume, Mr. Chair, that you have ruled that Mr. Del Mastro's initial motion was out of order, because I believe he motioned before we set our routine motions in place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Correct.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

So you did rule it out of order?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

Okay. Then in that regard, I have nothing to say.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay.

Ms. Glover.

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

I just want to make mention of this as a new committee member and a new member of Parliament.

Congratulations, first of all, on being nominated and elected as the chair.

I also want to extend a hand to the opposition members who are here at committee helping us new members to understand exactly how all of this works.

The first thing I'd like to know about is that when we vote on a motion such as the one we've just voted on, which says “substantive motions”, surely to goodness a prudent person would think that a motion such as one inviting our minister here is not what I would call a substantive motion that would require 48 hours' notice. I'm wondering if there is some explanation of what a substantive motion would be, because I simply don't feel this would be one that qualifies under the terminology. Therefore, we should be able to hear the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I agree with my colleague. I think this motion was brought before the House before the committee was set up. There was discussion about the minister coming.

I certainly am very keen to engage the minister. If there is a substantive reason not to have the minister come, or a reason for this to be deferred, I would like to hear it. But as for just saying it's out of order, I don't think that was the understanding. My understanding was that if I bring a motion now, in the middle of a meeting, that's out of order. But this was clearly brought to us and we had 48 hours. So if there is a good reason that he doesn't come to committee in the next two weeks--and I know that after that it might be harder--I'd like to hear it, because otherwise I think this motion needs to be discussed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Ms. Dhalla.

[Ruby Dhalla, Liberal, Brampton—Springdale, ON]

I think it is important that the minister come before the committee. As has just been stated by my colleague, the motion was brought forward before we adopted the rules. I think it was at a request, and in a good spirit of cooperation, that the vote on the motion was deferred. I think it is important that we call a vote on it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Rodriguez.

[Pablo Rodriguez, Liberal, Honoré-Mercier, QC]

I think that, in the spirit of cooperation, we could come to an agreement. We could ask general questions, without limiting ourselves.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Ms. Lavallée.