Fisheries Committee on Sept. 27th, 2012

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Georges Etoka]

Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.

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, cannot entertain points of order, nor participate in debate.

We can now proceed to the election of the chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party. I'm ready to receive motions for the chair.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

I nominate Rodney Weston as chair.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Kamp that Mr. Rodney Weston be elected chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Rodney Weston duly elected chair of the committee.

Before inviting Mr. Weston to take the chair, if the committee wishes, we will now proceed to the election of the vice-chairs.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition. I am now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.

[Philip Toone, NDP, Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine, QC]

I would nominate Robert Chisholm, please.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Toone that Mr. Chisholm be elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Chisholm duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.

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

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

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I'll nominate Mr. Lawrence MacAulay.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Woodworth that Mr. MacAulay be elected second vice-chair of the committee.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed)

I declare Mr. MacAulay duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.

I now invite Mr. Weston to take the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Before we start off here this morning, I want to say welcome back to those of you who have been on this committee before. I look forward to working with you once again. To those of you who are new to the committee or are just joining us for the first time, welcome as well.

I hope everyone had a great summer. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of things to move forward on. We have some outstanding studies to complete and reports to present, I hope, to the House of Commons. I look forward to proceeding forward with those items.

For today's agenda, all we had was the election of the chair. I would propose that we convene a meeting of the steering committee to lay out the agenda going forward. I propose that for our next meeting we lay out that plan and come back to the whole committee on Thursday of next week with that agenda for the whole committee.

Does that meet with everyone's approval?

We will leave it with the clerk to make the arrangements to plan the steering committee meeting with the various members. Our next meeting of the whole committee will be on Thursday next week.

This is going to be our permanent room.

Mr. Allen.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Just as a quick clarification point, Mr. Chair, do we know who the members of the steering committee are?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

I'm assuming that the members of our steering committee—and maybe it was an assumption I shouldn't have made—will remain as they were in the past: Mr. Kamp, Mr. Allen, Mr. Chisholm, Mr. MacAulay, and me.

[Mike Allen, Conservative, Tobique—Mactaquac, NB]

Thank you for that clarification, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you.

Are there any other questions?

I already welcomed anyone who was joining us for the first time, but we have two new permanent members to our committee.

One member is not so new. He's been here before. We welcome John Weston back to the committee.

We also welcome Stephen Woodworth, our newest member to the committee.

We certainly look forward to having more legal minds on the committee. We have two other lawyers, and I'm sure it will add to the debate and the discussion and move things forward.

[An hon. member]

You mean lengthen the debate.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

There you go.

I want to welcome you to the committee. I certainly look forward to working with you.

I know that Mr. Weston is no stranger to the committee.

Mr. Woodworth, hopefully you'll enjoy this committee. It's a great committee to be part of. We certainly take our work very seriously. We have the genuine interests of the industry, the fishery, the ocean, and our entire country at heart here. We certainly look forward to your adding to that discussion.

Is there any other business today to take care of?

Mr. Kamp.

[Randy Kamp, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge—Mission, BC]

Mr. Chair, I think we welcome a new analyst.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Oh, yes. Thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Kamp.

I apologize for the oversight, Mr. Williams.

Kristen has left us. She was with us for just the one year, and now she's gone to the University of Toronto to continue her studies. I want to wish her all the best.

I certainly want to welcome Mr. Williams to the committee. I look forward to working with Mr. Williams as we proceed forward with our reports.

There is certainly a lot of weight on your shoulders here, but we'll do our best to lighten it up.

[An hon. member]

Are you talking about my weight, Mr. Chairman?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

No, I'm not talking about your weight.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Rodney Weston]

Thank you very much, everyone.

There being no further business, I move that this meeting stand adjourned.