Evidence of meeting #34 for Canadian Heritage in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Philippe Méla  Legislative Clerk
Clerk of the Committee  Ms. Stephanie Bond
Thomas Owen Ripley  Associate Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Canadian Heritage

12:50 p.m.

Conservative

John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON

On a point of order, Madam Chair, could you just explain the consequential amendments very briefly? What did we just agree to in terms of consequential amendments?

12:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry

Mr. Méla, could you please explain that for us?

12:55 p.m.

Legislative Clerk

Philippe Méla

Amendment LIB-1 provides a definition for certain words to be understood within the bill. Right now, those words are brought to the bill by other amendments, which are LIB-3, LIB-6, LIB-7 and LIB-8. That's what they do, they just bring the concept all together. The note should have been read before the vote, but the end result is the same.

12:55 p.m.

Conservative

John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON

Thank you.

12:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

A point of order, Madam Chair.

Can the clerk repeat that slowly?

At the moment, we have a lot to manage all at once.

12:55 p.m.

Legislative Clerk

Philippe Méla

Certainly.

Would you like me to read it in French or in English?

12:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Can you read it in French, please?

12:55 p.m.

Legislative Clerk

Philippe Méla

In LIB‑1, Mr. Housefather proposes a definition that provides a new understanding of the term “communauté de langue officielle en situation minoritaire”. He proposes to make these changes elsewhere in the bill—

12:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I didn't ask for an explanation because I understood the purpose of the amendment. Rather, I wanted you to slowly read the proposed amendments that were not accepted.

12:55 p.m.

Legislative Clerk

Philippe Méla

In fact, no amendments were defeated because of the adoption of amendment LIB‑1. However, some amendments are adopted because they are consequential to LIB‑1.

12:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

What are these amendments?

12:55 p.m.

Legislative Clerk

Philippe Méla

This is amendment LIB‑3, which is on page 24 of the package of amendments. We also have LIB‑6, which is on page 89; LIB‑7, which is on page 92; LIB‑8, which is on page 98.

12:55 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Thank you.

June 14th, 2022 / 12:55 p.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Champoux, did you want to ask a question?

12:55 p.m.

Bloc

Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC

I would like clarification again.

Could you explain to me why the amendments are adopted automatically when a definition has simply been adopted? Why does the adoption of a definition mean that amendments LIB‑3 and LIB‑8, for example, are adopted?

It seems to me that the scope of these amendments is beyond the comprehension of the term.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC

This should have been mentioned before, but I didn't know.

The objective of these four amendments is the same, that is, to replace in the act the term “francophone and anglophone minorities in Canada” with “official language minority communities”, or OLMCs.

12:55 p.m.

Bloc

Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC

Perfect. That's what I didn't understand. We're simply changing the term.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

Anthony Housefather Liberal Mount Royal, QC

That's it. We're not changing anything else.

12:55 p.m.

Bloc

Martin Champoux Bloc Drummond, QC

That's clear.

Thank you.

12:55 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry

I shall now move to CPC-1.

Now, I want to suggest, before we move any further and start getting into another amendment, that it is now almost 1:00 p.m., and we have a hard stop.

I would like to suspend this meeting until we return.

Go ahead, Mr. Julian.

1 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

Madam Chair, I'd like to propose that, if we have unanimous consent, we continue up until question period.

1 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry

I will ask the clerk to speak to that. I think it may have to do with resources, breaks, etc.

1 p.m.

The Clerk

That's correct, Madam Chair. We can continue until 1:30. Those are the resources we have available today.

1 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry

Mr. Julian, would you like us to continue until 1:30?

1 p.m.

NDP

Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC

If we have unanimous consent, I think it would be useful to continue our work.