Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 29th, 2007

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

It's too short.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Is it too short?

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

It's too short.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

How about five o'clock?

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

I think we have 34, do we not?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

We have 34 amendments to a 15-clause bill. That's exciting.

Is five o'clock acceptable? I'm trying to be considerate of our clerks.

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

That would be five o'clock--when?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Tomorrow.

I'm open to suggestions. I'm not trying to push the committee in a direction.

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

Does the committee actually need all that time prior to Tuesday? Could we not say five o'clock Monday? Would that be too short?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

These guys are beating me up all the time, so another meeting won't bother me.

What is the committee's wish?

I'm going to suggest that Friday is a bit too late....

Go ahead, Madame Picard.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

Monday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Do you mean Monday at noon?

[Karen Redman, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

We won't be ready by tomorrow, so we'll at least need--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Would noon on Monday be acceptable, Madam Redman?

Shall we say one o'clock on Monday? Going once, going twice...I hear another noon.

I'm going to go for one o'clock. Is that acceptable? I'm trying to find a negotiated balance here.

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

Could I add something? Could we have the same delay to receive the summary of the different studies?

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Which studies do you mean?

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

Which studies? We received a list of the studies and we were supposed to receive the summary. You told us, Mr. Chair--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Wait, I remember; you have my apologies.

Go ahead, Monsieur Bédard.

[Michel Bédard, Committee Researcher]

The summaries have been prepared. They are being translated. The translation will be ready tomorrow morning, and time to have a look at them, it should be distributed tomorrow afternoon or Monday morning at the latest.

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

That doesn't give us much time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

No, I agree with you.

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

Maybe we should push back the clause-by-clause study.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

I think we're going to have to, knowing that. You have my apologies and my appreciation for reminding me.

When will those summaries be out to members?

[Michel Bédard]

It will be Friday after 5 p.m. or Monday morning.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

I have to agree with members: that's not enough time to read them, assess them, analyze them, and come up with amendments, should there be any.

All right. We probably cannot go to clause-by-clause study on Tuesday. That's going to be far too tight. Can we have amendments in by Tuesday at one o'clock and plan to do clause-by-clause study on Thursday, which relaxes things a little bit?

Colleagues, that seems to be the decision.

Moving on, we need to have witness lists in for Bill C-6 and Bill C-18. We do have some witnesses, and we'll work on that probably for Tuesday, but I also want to remind members that we need to have those witness lists in.

We don't have a lot of time, and I don't want to be rude to Madam Dawson. You have been handed out the revised report of the steering committee. Can everybody pull that out? We're attempting to adopt a report that is asking for extra meetings for the continuation of the debate on the motion by Madam Redman.

I'm not sure we're going to have time to deal with this; I do apologize. I will adjourn the meeting at ten minutes to one. Just so we don't get into confusion, room 139 north is down the hall on the right side. The Ethics Commissioner and her team are waiting there for us right now for our meet-and-greet. This room is not available, so we have to evacuate at that time.

The floor is now open, however, for this. I suppose there's a motion to adopt the report. We're into a debate. I don't think there were any names on our list last time. Does anybody wish to comment on this new report?

I have Mr. Reid and Mr. Lukiwski.

Go ahead, Mr. Reid, please.