Government Operations Committee on Dec. 13th, 2011

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

No.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

The motion would be to add them to the witness list, which I agree was the subject matter of the meeting we were about to have. Mr. Boulerice had the floor and he's moving this motion now, which is that these three NGO organizations be heard as witnesses in the context of the study of the consideration of Mr. Dion as the Integrity Commissioner.

Is that...?

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

That is right.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I have one more point of order, then. If you're accepting his motion as legal, am I allowed to move a motion to move in camera to deal with his motion?

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

It would be if you had the floor.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I was just asking a question.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Well, my understanding would be that if I recognized you and you had the floor, then yes, your motion would be in order to move in camera right now.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Then after he moves the motion, is his time up, or do we move...? Since we're in time-allocated time, does his motion then...? Do we wait until the next speaker? Does that hit the floor and then we have an open debate on it, or do we go to the next speaker on the list?

This is unique what he's doing here, Mr. Chair. We do have members on the actual speakers list, do we not? So if he's moving his motion within his five minutes, we move to the next speaker, I would think.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Let me—

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

I would add that you weren't on the speakers list.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

You don't have the floor. It's a point of order.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

It's a point of order--

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

--and the point of order is to deal with the orders of the day.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Are there any more speakers on Mike's point of order before I rule on his point of order?

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

I'd like to speak to his point of order.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Mathieu, and then Ron.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

I don't see what the big issue is. All he's doing is moving that we hear some witnesses. What's the problem? It's another example of the “shut up” government, right? All we want to do is have the ability to hear out some very competent witnesses on this issue. So I don't see how this is an issue and why it can't go ahead now as a motion.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Can I respond on my point of order?

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

No, you can't. We have a speakers list.

Ron Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I wanted to clarify just in respect of our witness if we could wait until five o'clock and have this discussion—it's just another 20 minutes—rather than have the debate in front of the witness, who has kindly given up his time.

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

I don't see what the problem is with having a debate in front of—

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

You don't have the floor, so you don't have the right to have any opinion, frankly.

Mike Wallace.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

In response, my point of order was that we had agreed at the beginning of this meeting that we would interview the potential candidate for the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner and then we would go in camera to talk about future business. What's happening—

[Mathieu Ravignat, NDP, Pontiac, QC]

Point of order. We actually didn't--