Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 18th, 2007

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Yes, we are.

I appreciate the conflict here, and there might be an opportunity for us to look at this at report stage and suggest something else. Because of the perceived conflict and with the advice from our panel, I'll ask to withdraw this at this time, and if there is a way to do this so that we can make it more clear, we can do that at report stage. I'm hearing from our panel that this is kind of difficult to do the way it's stated here, and I guess I don't want to get into notwithstanding clauses today.

So I'll ask if we can have unanimous consent...or a vote on it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Do we have unanimous consent to withdraw this motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

(Amendment withdrawn)

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Colleagues, although I want to point out that I very much appreciate the hard work the NDP has done on this bill, I guess it's a good example of introducing motions whereby we don't have time to review them, because frankly there would have been a note here that it conflicted with an earlier amendment.

However, that being said, we'll move on to NDP-5, page 12 in your notebook, also dealing with clause 5. If you recall, we did carry NDP-3, which does apply to NDP-5. I'll let you look at NDP-5 right now, but I think we're going to just call the question.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

As you mentioned, Chair, these are all related to the previous NDP amendment. I'll let members read it for themselves, and then we can go ahead and vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Is it the will of the committee to group NDP-5, NDP-8, NDP-9, NDP-10, NDP-12, NDP-13, and NDP-14 and ask for the question now?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

All right.

As the chair, I want to make sure everybody is aware of what we're grouping. We already did NDP-3, so right now we're going to vote on NDP-5, NDP-8, NDP-9, NDP-10, NDP-12, NDP-13, and NDP-14. Shall those amendments carry?

(Amendments agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Colleagues, we're still on clause 5.

Mr. McDougall, did you have a comment?

[Dan McDougall]

Mr. Chair, if I may, just a point of clarity. It is with the same consequential amendments that were passed with the original NDP to which these.... So it would be NDP-5, NDP-8, NDP-9, NDP-10, NDP-12, NDP-13, and NDP-14 as amended appropriately consistent with what was passed with NDP-3.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Yes, of course. Colleagues, as you do recall, we did change some of the wording there to capture nomination candidates and leadership, so with the same sorts of changes, that amendment as amended will carry.

Liberal amendment 5, on page 14 of your booklet, also deals with clause 5 of the bill, and I will ask Mr. Owen to introduce that, please.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Thank you.

This amendment is really a matter of administrative fairness. Before the Chief Electoral Officer makes a determination that would have consequences for the electoral district association or registered party or lender, they should be given an opportunity to make representations to the Chief Electoral Officer. Those decisions could have significant financial consequences, and it was felt, as a matter of administrative fairness, that there should be an opportunity to be heard.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Any other comments on that?

Mr. Lukiwski.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Again, I would like to have our officials comment on this.

[Dan McDougall]

I have no particular comment. This may indeed be something, I would suspect, a CEO would do in any case.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Could you repeat that, Mr. McDougall?

[Dan McDougall]

I don't know for certain, but I would imagine that this may be something that the CEO would do in any event, as a matter of procedural fairness, as you said.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you.

Madame Robillard.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

It is just a translation problem, Mr. Chair. In the French, “Chief Electoral Officer” is translated by “directeur général” instead of “directeur général des élections”.

[Michel Bédard, Committee Researcher]

Subsection (3), that comes just before, refers to the “directeur général des élections”.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Colleagues, again, it's not that I'm lonely—I'm not lonely—but I want the discussion on the record. Could you talk to the chair? We'll get your microphones on, and we'll have these comments on the record.

Colleagues, we're just making sure that the translation expresses the same intent as the English version. Are there any other comments on the amendment while we're doing that? We're getting ready for the question.

We'll hear from Mr. Proulx and then Madame Robillard.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

We're having a translation problem here. I think that Ms. Robillard is right.

What the researcher was saying is that in the previous paragraph, we referred to directeur général des élections, and in the following paragraph we also refer to directeur général des élections. We might as well do the same thing in clause 3.1, directeur général des élections, just for clarity. We're very strong on clarity, as you know.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

I'm going to take that as a subamendment to the amendment.

Colleagues, we want to change some of the wording in the French version, which I take as a subamendment. If we could perhaps ask one of our members there to read the changes for the members, we'll vote on the subamendment changes.

Madame Robillard.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

It should read:

(3.1) Avant que le directeur général des élections se prononce en application du paragraphe (4), l'association de circonscription, le parti enregistré ou le prêteur doivent obtenir la possibilité de lui présenter des observations.

So we just have to add the words “des élections” so that the title is accurate.