Evidence of meeting #60 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was election.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

David Anderson  Senior Policy Advisor, Legislation and House Planning, Privy Council Office
Marc Chénier  Counsel, Legislation and House Planning, Privy Council Office

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Minister, I hope you don't mind me cutting you off. I certainly am just respecting your time. I know you have other obligations, and I do want to get our last questioner in.

Mr. Dewar, please, for three minutes.

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Thank you, Chair.

Mr. Lukiwski's points are well taken. It's not about being against this proposal; it's about being against the way in which we're getting the agenda from the government and how Canadians are being consulted on it.

I have to say to Mr. Preston that the reason we voted against procedure and House affairs going forward with what we had all agreed to is that, at the time, we had a motion in the House to do just that. And that was well known—

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON

How did it work out for you, Paul?

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Not well, because Canadians now are paying for some—Well, it's something we don't even have yet. We'll see if the Frontier Institute's work is worth it. So I guess it didn't work out well, but we had a motion in the House. Let's be clear about that. You guys know that, so let's not go there.

My question to the minister is on the issue of consultation—or actually, I have a more important question. You associated volunteerism and civic participation—and I mentioned this consultation report with the Frontier Institute—and seemed to say that where there are higher levels of—

You're making a direct connection between participation in civic society in general and having higher voter participation. Is that your assertion?

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

There certainly is research—not this research, because as I said, it's kind of blinkered in that it looks only at electoral participation—that shows positive correlation between community involvement and civic engagement of all types. If you are involved in a community ratepayers organization, you are more likely to vote or to belong to a political party. If you are a regular church attender, you're more likely to be involved in some other kind of charitable organization. People who fall into groups that you might call community leadership groups are more actively engaged, and at the other end are those who are detached.

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

And you're asserting that in Europe there's a higher voter participation rate because of Sunday voting.

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

Yes, in some countries.

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

Do they have a higher level of participation in Europe than we do in Canada?

12:30 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

It depends on the country.

12:30 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

I would submit to you, Minister, that that isn't the case. And if it is the case, you need to do your homework on this. We're getting threads of studies and we're not getting any kind of coherence vis-à-vis this bill.

As I said, it might be a good idea, but we need more coherence in the studies we're getting from you. I'll leave it at that, and I won't put a question to you on it. But we need something a little more coherent vis-à-vis this bill. There are some interesting points you posit, but we don't have a clear connection—you know, civic participation here versus Europe, Sunday versus Europe, but nothing on democratic reform.

Have you read the Law Commission report on democratic reform? Is that something you have been able to read at this point?

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

I'll simply say this. It's very difficult for me, in the 30 seconds that are left at the end of each one of Mr. Dewar's interventions, to weave the splendid tapestry that connects all the different elements of all the different studies, all the aspects of civic engagement, all the aspects of democratic participation—

12:35 p.m.

NDP

Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON

I would suggest that you have....

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

I'm going to have to cut that off.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON

—in that little mere time that I have. And I apologize for not rising to the occasion in the fashion you would like.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Thank you, Minister.

Colleagues, I want to thank the minister. If there are more questions, we can make arrangements to have the minister back.

I have to note, though, that I noticed that on the last few opportunities for members to speak, we were drifting into debate, which sort of appears to me to mean that we've gotten through our questions, at least for the minister.

I want to thank the minister for being here this morning with his staff. I appreciate your being here to help the committee understand this bill. We certainly appreciate the extra half-hour you were able to give us this morning. We can excuse you now.

Colleagues, I would like to just point out a couple of things. By no means is this a request for a final list. But it seems to me that this is fresh in our minds right now. There have been some good suggestions around the table for reports we've been keeping track of that members wish to see, reports we might wish to summarize, and we'll certainly do that. But while it's still fresh in members' minds, if you would like to submit to our clerk any witnesses that you have in your minds right now, we can revisit this at another time. I'm not suggesting that this would be a final list, but rather than forget —

Here is the second issue I wish the committee to advise me on and help me with. I'm not sure that we can get any of the witnesses here for Thursday. We could probably get some of the research here and continue debate. But I'm going to leave it to the committee that this would be the only thing we would do on Thursday. I'm at the will of the committee. We either schedule a meeting on Thursday and move forward with whatever research we can get and whatever witnesses we can get, or we not have a meeting on Thursday and we conclude today.

Is there a brief discussion by anyone?

We'll have Mr. Preston.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

Joe Preston Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON

Mr. Chair, I like your second idea better. We can use the time between now and Friday to submit witness suggestions to you or the clerk. I think you'd agree that since it's Tuesday, trying to find witnesses for Thursday would be very tough, so let's just do the list.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Are there any other comments?

Is it agreed by the committee, then, that we adjourn now?

12:35 p.m.

Liberal

Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC

Elections Canada is in town.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Do you want to call Elections Canada for Thursday?

12:35 p.m.

A voice

No.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

First of all, I'm getting the sense from the committee that we not have a meeting on Thursday.

12:35 p.m.

A voice

I would be here, but we're not going to have a quorum.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Order, please. I know we're all jovial today and having a good time, but I have my business to do.

We are not going to have a meeting on Thursday, then.

12:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

12:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear

Colleagues, there is nothing further for today, except again, a reminder to get any witness lists or suggestions for further study on Bill C-55 to our clerk as soon as you possibly can.

I wish almost everyone the best of summers. I certainly hope you have a safe and wonderful time. I didn't know it was summer. I'm prepared to be here next week, but in the event that we're moving toward summer, I do sincerely wish everybody that.

And actually, with all sincerity, I thank everybody for this session. I believe that this committee is an example for other committees. I can tell you that I've never seen some members work as hard as you members do and be as prepared as you are. I appreciate it. Our clerks appreciate it. Canadians appreciate it. Have a wonderful summer.

The meeting is adjourned.