Information & Ethics Committee on June 19th, 2025

[The Clerk of the Committee, Nancy Vohl]

Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(3), as the clerk of the committee, I will now preside over the election of the chair and the vice-chairs.

I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions, entertain points of order or participate in debate.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the official opposition for this committee.

I am ready to receive motions for the chair.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, ON]

Good morning, Madam Clerk and colleagues. It's great to join you and be back at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics to continue the good work we do here. Congratulations to everyone on their elections.

Madam Chair, I'd like to nominate my colleague John Brossard for the position of chair of this committee.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Barrett that Mr. John Brassard be elected chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. John Brassard duly elected chair of the committee.

I invite Mr. Brassard to take the chair.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Thank you to the committee members as well.

I would also like to welcome all the new members: Mr. Thériault, Mrs. Church, Ms. Lapointe, Mr. Saini, Mr. Sari, Mr. Hardy and Mr. Majumdar.

I now invite the clerk to proceed with the election of the vice-chairs.

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the government party.

I am now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.

There are two hands up. I saw Mr. Saini first.

[Gurbux Saini, Liberal, Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC]

I'm Gurbux Saini from the riding of Fleetwood—Port Kells, and I would like to nominate Linda Lapointe for the position of vice-chair of the committee.

[The Clerk]

Thank you.

Mr. Saini moved that Ms. LaPointe be elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

I see none.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

I am now prepared to receive motions for the second vice-chair.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I propose Mr. Luc Thériault as second vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Ms. Lapointe that Mr. Thériault be elected second vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any other motions?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Congratulations, Mr. Thériault and Ms. Lapointe.

Before starting, I would ask all in-person participants to consult the guidelines written on the cards on the table. These measures are in place to help prevent audio and feedback incidents and to protect the health and safety of all participants, including our interpreters. You'll notice there is a QR code on the card that links to a short awareness video.

I would also, if it's appropriate, like to invite the analysts up to the front. Is that appropriate at this point?

[The Clerk]

Yes, we can proceed to the adoption of the routine motions, and the first one is about them.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

First of all, I want to welcome back Nancy as our clerk. Nancy has done a great job in the past keeping us all in line, so we're glad to have you back, Nancy.

You'll get lots of correspondence from Nancy, and I encourage you to read it all, because all of it is important, as you will see.

We are going to go to the routine motions. I was hoping that we could adopt these as an omnibus issue. I know that everybody is in agreement with them, but I've been advised by the clerk that, in case any future amendments are required, it's better that we read them on an individual basis. We're going to have to proceed in that manner.

Does anybody want to propose these motions?

Ms. Lapointe, you may begin by reading the first motion, which pertains to analyst services.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Regarding analyst services, I move:

That the committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the Chair, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist it in its work.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Mr. Barrett, you may present the second routine motion.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, ON]

I move:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of four members, the Chair and one member from each recognized party, as designated by each party’s whip; and that the subcommittee work in a spirit of collaboration.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I would like to welcome the analysts, Mr. Thibodeau and Ms. Savoie.

Again, we had tremendous analysts who provided us with great information for all of our meetings. They're very diligent in their work. I'm glad that they're a part of the committee as well. Welcome.

We will now move on to the third motion which pertains to meetings without a quorum.

Please go ahead, Ms. Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

Regarding meetings without a quorum, I move:

That the Chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence published when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four members are present, including two members of the opposition parties and two members of the government party.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you.

Move the next motion, Mr. Barrett, please, if you don't mind.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands—Rideau Lakes, ON]

The motion is on travel. I move:

That, when travelling outside the Parliamentary Precinct: (a) the meeting begin after 15 minutes, regardless of whether quorum is present; (b) no substantive motion may be moved during such meetings.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you.

We will now move on to the motion regarding time for opening remarks and questioning of witnesses.

Go ahead, Ms. Lapointe.

[Linda Lapointe, Liberal, Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, QC]

I propose:

That witnesses be given five (5) minutes for their opening statements; that whenever possible, witnesses provide the committee with their opening statements 72 hours in advance; that, at the discretion of the Chair, during the questioning of witnesses, there be allocated six (6) minutes for the first questioner of each party as follows:

First round:

Conservative Party

Liberal Party

Bloc Québécois

For the second and subsequent rounds, the order and time for the questioning be as follows:

Conservative Party, five (5) minutes

Liberal Party, five (5) minutes

Bloc Québécois, two and a half (2.5) minutes

Conservative Party, five (5) minutes

Liberal Party, five (5) minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Thank you, Ms. Lapointe.

Is everyone agreed on this motion?

Go ahead, Mr. Thériault.

[Luc Thériault, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Mr. Chair, I will make the same remarks here as I made at the Standing Committee on Health. I would like to ask for some flexibility. I know this has been discussed among the parties.

In the last session, two parties shared speaking time in the first and second round of questions. In the second round, the NDP had two and a half minutes. There were about 20 MPs. At one point, the Conservatives also offered me some speaking time.

I am asking for some flexibility because, when you just have two and a half minutes in the second round, you can't do much. I think the members of each party are able to ask some very good questions. Each party does its own research, however, and I think it is always helpful to learn from everyone's expertise. Sometimes another MP or I myself could ask a question that would not be asked otherwise. One needs the time to do that, however.

So I am asking for some flexibility. Ultimately, I would like to have four or five minutes of speaking time in the second round, depending on the situation. After that, it could be two and a half minutes.

As I said, that is how speaking time was allocated in the last session.