Evidence of meeting #70 for Finance in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was industry.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1:50 p.m.
Liberal
Robert Thibault Liberal West Nova, NS
If there isn't any 48-hour notice, there must be unanimous consent.
1:50 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Mr. St-Cyr's motion does not require us to table a report, but to prepare recommendations. I'm not sure what that means.
Again, I repeat in English, “one session before March 1 to consider and prepare its recommendations to the minister”. We did not detail how we were going to prepare those recommendations or if they were going to be in a report or not, so I'm in the hands of the committee.
Mr. Wallace.
1:50 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Unfortunately, I'm completely confused on what we're doing here. I'm not sure if Mr. St-Cyr has put a recommendation on the floor. If he has, I'd like to hear it.
Second of all, based on what you're telling my colleagues over there, if we wait until Thursday, if he brings a notice of motion and we deal with it on Thursday, there will be no report. We could deal with the recommendations but there will be no report that would be capable of making it to the House by the time we recess on Friday. Is that an accurate statement?
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Let me explain to you.
Logistically, we're not going to have any time to prepare a report and get it translated even if there is a motion. By the time the motion goes through 48 hours, we adopt the motion on Thursday, and we decide to go ahead with the report, we're not going to have time. Logistically, even if we were to decide on Thursday that we are unanimously for a certain point or a certain recommendation, that report has to get translated. It can't be done on Thursday and be ready to be tabled by Friday, because Friday is the last day and it has to be tabled by 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Yes, the only recommendation that I can see, and Mr. St-Cyr can correct me, is if we all decide that each party, or member on the committee, takes it upon its own business--not forced--to prepare its own report, translate it, and give it to this committee by Thursday, in both official languages, and then we can table it. Any member can table it. It doesn't necessarily have to go through the committee. We can decide to do it through the committee or outside of committee.
Mr. Del Mastro, Mr. Dykstra.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I was just going to suggest that the original motion was that we would have hearings and that we would make some recommendations. I propose we spend some time on Thursday making some recommendations that we can forward to the finance minister. We don't need to prepare a formal report. We can certainly forward recommendations to the finance minister. I think that's entirely consistent with what Mr. St-Cyr is looking for.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Sorry, on that last recommendation, the members cannot table a report on their own. It has to be done through the committee. The members can write a letter directly to the finance minister.
Sorry about that.
Mr. Dykstra.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Rick Dykstra Conservative St. Catharines, ON
I just wanted to get some clarification on a comment made by Dean. There is no report in hand, there is no vote on whether we're going to forward a report to the minister. My understanding of what our plans were is that we were going to hold hearings and then consider whether or not we were going to make some recommendations. I thought that's where we stood.
If what we are doing is something different from that, then I would think we'd need some sort of amending motion to be able to do that.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
The motion, again, reads “one session before March 1”--which is what we've done--“to consider and prepare its recommendations to the minister”. It doesn't say whether it's in writing, a formalized report. It says “prepare its recommendations to the minister”.
Monsieur Wallace, Ms. Ablonczy, and then Mr. St-Cyr.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Based on what you've told us about the other option of each party's writing a commentary--because it's not a report--I'm assuming that those just go directly to the minister. They do not come back here for discussion at committee. They have no committee support.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Wallace Conservative Burlington, ON
Okay.
Well, we don't really have a motion in front of us. I think we should just adjourn today and come back and discuss it on Thursday, where we're going to go with the recommendations.
1:55 p.m.
Conservative
Diane Ablonczy Conservative Calgary Nose Hill, AB
I just want to point out that the finance minister continues to be open to input. He met with the critics of all the parties over dinner for two hours to discuss concerns and recommendations for the budget. I'm sure if the Bloc have some further recommendations they'd like to make, the minister would be open to Mr. Paquette's discussing those with him or giving him a letter. I think there's certainly time for the Bloc to put any further concerns forward to the minister, and I'd encourage them to do that.
1:55 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
I wasn't talking about preparing a report on all the evidence, as we usually do, because we obviously wouldn't have the time to do that by Thursday. I was talking about preparing something with two or three recommendations on which committee members agree. Then we could adopt them and submit them to the House like any other opinion.
Is that preferable to proceeding by motion? We could prepare a motion this afternoon and send it to you, then we could proceed with the vote on Thursday.
1:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
We're going to do this simply. The suggestion that I have right now is that all parties submit something to this committee on Thursday, whether you want to call it a recommendation.... Once it's put together, it's going to be called a report. If you want to just call it comments, I don't really care what it says. We're going to vote on whether that's acceptable. If you decide not to do that, then my other suggestion would be that you all write to the minister, and if you decide to put forward a motion, then that's up to every member in this committee.
We're going to vote on option A, which is that all parties submit one or two pages. Let's vote on the essence, and then we'll decide what we do.
2 p.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
For them to submit a report or not? This doesn't mean anything.
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
That's up to the members.
So everybody in favour for each party to submit a one- or two-page commentary on Thursday in both official languages, please raise your hand.
Nobody.
Okay, it's opposed. So what are we doing here?
2 p.m.
Bloc
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
The motion would read as follows: That the committee devote 30 minutes on Thursday to voting on recommendations for the minister.
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Okay, do we have unanimous consent that on Thursday
we'll discuss the position we propose to the minister for 30 minutes?
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Massimo Pacetti
Is it unanimous? No.
So you have to introduce a motion, Mr. St-Cyr.
It's not unanimous. Okay?
You have to introduce a motion in the prescribed manner.
Before we go, I'd like to give formal consideration to a motion. I'm just going to read it into the record, and then we can adjourn.
Given that the finance committee has adopted a motion to study charges related to ATM fees, and that during the hearings of the finance committee concerning Bill C-37, testimony was received respecting the timeliness and charges related to electronic payments, I move that in addition to the Standing Committee on Finance's study of ATM fees, it include concurrently an examination of any issues related to the electronic payment process.
You will get that in writing.
On that note, thank you very much.
The meeting is adjourned. We'll see you Thursday.