Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 9th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Reid.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I'll let Tom respond first, and then I'll--

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Lukiwski, you were still up. We'll go back to you.

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

Quite frankly, it's just to give the clerk a little bit of extra time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Reid.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I think this is what we are trying to juggle here: first of all, we are trying to be nice to our clerk, and we're trying to juggle that with being as open as possible. If our clerk never had to sleep, we would say midnight.

So if we were to go to the 6 p.m. four days a week and 2 p.m. on Fridays rule, would that create problems for you? If something were submitted, for example, in one language and you had to get it translated, would you still be able to get that done in time so that everybody would get a day's notice of what's coming up, or would that be a problem for you?

[The Clerk]

It is still feasible. It can certainly still be done. There might be a longer delay after 6 p.m. in terms of securing translation services, but if the committee desires to keep it at 6 p.m., as in the House, certainly all services will be made available to make that happen.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Currently we are at 4 p.m. or 6 p.m. Which are we suggesting?

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

Chair, again, one reason I suggested 4 p.m. is that we've seen a few examples in previous committees in previous Parliaments of something coming in literally at the last moment, just at 6 o'clock, which proved to be very problematic for the clerks and the staff. Frankly, that was the only reason I suggested 4 p.m. It was to give them a little extra breathing room to get things done.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

As a helpful piece of information, the government operations committee met this morning in this room and chose 4 p.m. Just to be different, we're going to go with.... No, that's okay.

Mr. Comartin.

[Joe Comartin, NDP, Windsor—Tecumseh, ON]

The reason I would push for 6 o'clock is that sometimes issues arise out of question period, and having only an hour to prepare a motion, between 3 o'clock and 4, is really tight, but having from 3 to 6 gives us time to prepare. Especially if it's a really significant substantive issue, trying to put a motion together in an hour is really difficult.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Lukiwski.

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

I have no problem, Joe. I'm not hard on 4 o'clock. The motivation I was coming from was to give the clerks a break, but if you want 6 o'clock, that's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay. All in favour of 6 o'clock?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

We have to return to the private members' business piece of this motion.

[The Clerk]

I will just draw members' attention to Standing Order 91.1, which I will read:

91.1 (1) At the beginning of the first session of a Parliament, and thereafter as required, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs shall name one Member from each of the parties recognized in the House and a Chair from the government party to constitute the Subcommittee on Private Members’ Business...

I highlight that simply because previously we've had some amendments to the routine motion that was just adopted concerning the membership of the subcommittee on private members' business, so we have to keep in mind the standing order that stipulates the membership of that subcommittee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Lukiwski.

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

I don't think we're prepared to change the standing order to accommodate my request, so we'll certainly agree to the standing order as written.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Then what do we do? Will we vote on the new motion, remove the old motion, or just move forward because we're good people? You can argue the last point.

Can we have a motion to accept it as it is written in the Standing Orders?

Mr. Lukiwski.

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

I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

All in favour of that motion as it is?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

Thank you. Now we've covered every end of this, whichever way we want to go.

Is there anything else on our routine proceedings?

I have a suggestion, and it is rare that it is coming from the chair, but I have a rotation list on questions for witnesses, because we have had some difficulty. I have this in both official languages, English and French. Can we distribute this?

I have calculated percentages in a given hour with a witness who has a five-minute opening statement. Based on members of the committee, we've had some difficulty in this committee in the past in ensuring that all members of the committee got to ask questions of a witness. So I have broken this down into a seven-minute round to begin with, followed by subsequent four-minute rounds in which every member at the table would get at least one chance to ask questions. When that is done, the total minutes allotted breaks down to almost exactly the percentage of the seats in the House and the percentages by party in the House. As you get that in front of you, you will be able to see that.

If it were two hours' worth, we would simply double this or do it twice, at the will of the committee.

We had some difficulty last time in this committee trying to make sure that we shared with all members and that all members got a chance. You can always pass, and then of course someone else from your own party can pick up.

Are there questions on this?

Mr. MacKenzie.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

I have just one minor question for clarification. On page 16 of the binder that was handed out, on the time for opening remarks and questioning of witnesses, I don't know how what is laid out there reflects in practice for this committee.