I wouldn't say we made a whole lot of progress in our first meeting. I'm hopeful that, now that everyone's got all their remarks they would like to have on the record, we can move a little faster today.

As the committee knows, if we get it done this morning, we won't have to have our meeting this afternoon; however, there is a possibility we may end up going this afternoon if we're not able to move forward this morning.

Once again, I will encourage the members to make their points and keep them short, and then we can move on from where we left off. We're still working on clause 2.

(On clause 2--Definitions)

I believe amendments one and two have passed. We're now on Liberal amendment L-3.

Mr. Silva, perhaps you'd like to talk to L-3.

9:05 a.m.

NDP

Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON

I have a point of order.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Yes, Ms. Chow.

9:05 a.m.

NDP

Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON

Mr. Chair, because I know at least two new members have joined us, can you do a quick recap of what we have passed in the other meeting, the first clause, so everybody's up to speed and other folks know what's in front of us?

Thank you very much.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Sure.

Liberal amendment L-1 was amended to include band governments:

“aboriginal peoples' organization” means an organization of first nation band governments, Inuit, or Métis people

and then Liberal amendment L-2, which was “province, territory, institution, first nation band government”—

9:05 a.m.

A voice

That was withdrawn.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

That was withdrawn, so “province, territory, institution, aboriginal peoples' organization or corporate”. So once again, it was just to include the band governments.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK

Just for those who are new to the committee, we had the author of the bill before us. She said she had consulted widely with stakeholders. Pretty soon we found out that the aboriginal people, the people who were going to be particularly targeted with this bill, because we wanted to make sure that early learning child care was offered to them—it was never part of the bill. I found it a little difficult to understand why it wouldn't have been in the beginning, because we're supposed to have consulted widely. We're finding out the provinces don't agree.

Right now, we have more amendments than clauses to the bill. We know it's a badly flawed bill, and it's just unbelievable what we're voting for.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

I think those points were made in the last meeting.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK

But it's just to get them up to speed. The NDP claimed their stakeholders were widely consulted—

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

I think the new members were checking the blues before they got here.

Ms. Chow, were those all the points you wanted to make?

9:05 a.m.

NDP

Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON

I also thought that to make it easier and faster for today, we should say there are three sets of amendments. The first set is by Ms. Dhalla. Every one of them has to do with the aboriginal people and first nations. The second one is mine, which deals with home care, to make sure home care is allowed. And then the third one is a name change on the bill by, I think, Mr. Lake.

So those are the three chunks of amendments. I thought since we have new people—it looks like a large group of them, but it's really not a whole lot.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Sure. A lot of them are similar in nature, just referring to the fact that we want to include aboriginals.

I am hopeful that, since we understand that, as we move forward, we can.... As you know, we need unanimous consent to be able to chunk all of them together, but certainly after explaining that to the new members here, I hope we can move through them quickly, because any points made previously, one can assume, could be applied to all the previous ones.

9:05 a.m.

NDP

Olivia Chow NDP Trinity—Spadina, ON

Exactly. I've bunched the amendments that I submitted at the last meeting. Some of them are just little amendments to the aboriginal part. We'll go through those clause-by-clause.

Thanks very much for allowing me the time.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Perfect.

We are now going to move, then—

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK

We didn't get those until yesterday. For a serious and well-thought-out bill, I think we should have had them a little sooner.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

I know Ms. Chow was working through the whole week trying to get them just right, so that's why it took her so long to get them to us.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

Lynne Yelich Conservative Blackstrap, SK

She was at the party last night.

9:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

All right. So let's move right to amendment L-3.

Ms. Dhalla, welcome. If you'd like to read your amendment and talk briefly about it, we'll then have some discussion and move on that.

I'll also mention that this particular amendment has been ruled out of order by the clerk.

I'll just leave it at that, but you could just talk to it, Ms. Dhalla.

9:10 a.m.

Liberal

Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON

The amendment is as follows: that Bill C-303, in clause 2, be amended by replacing line 14 on page 2 with the following:

child care program of a province, territory or aboriginal peoples' organization by

As discussed at the previous meetings, I think it is important that all legislation going through this committee and the House be reflective of our country and incorporate and include the aboriginal people. The amendments that have been forwarded were done so in consultation with aboriginal organizations from across the country; hence, despite the ruling of the clerk, I would request support for this particular motion.

There are a number of additional amendments following, which are very similar in nature, so I'm going to keep my remarks short, in the hope we can actually get through this before 12 o'clock today and finish this up.

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

I was even thinking that before 11 would be nice.

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB

On a point of order, Mr. Chairman, you've ruled that each one is out of order. But we—or they—only really overruled you on the first one, right?

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

On the first three.

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB

On the first three.

So do we have to have a vote in each case, or not?

9:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Dean Allison

Just until we get to the next batch. On this one, given that the first three have been ruled out of order and I've been overruled, we'll wait till we get to the new one, which is substantially different.