Human Resources Committee on Oct. 4th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Thank you for that, Mr. Cardozo and Ms. Popovic. We certainly appreciate your appearing and taking the time to give us all the information at your disposal with respect to this study.

We're going to suspend—

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

We're going to suspend our hearing and move in camera. You can leave us, as we have other business to do, but before I suspend I want to deal with a point of order.

Thank you very much. We'll just wait until you're disconnected.

All right, I think we're in committee. You had a point of order, Mr. Cleary. Go ahead.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My point of order has to do with the notice of motion that I sent to all members of this committee. We confirmed that it was received on October 2. The notice of motion was:

That the committee immediately strike a subcommittee to study the following: “Changes to Employment Insurance: The Impact on Canadian Workers, Industries and Communities”;

That this study focus on the impact on changes to the employment insurance program that were announced last spring, and in particular the end of the Extra Five Weeks pilot project and the changes to the Working While on Claim pilot project—

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

I have a point of order. This isn't a point of order—

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

The study should focus on the impact on seasonal workers and industries—

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Mr. Cleary, hold on.

Go ahead, Ms. Leitch.

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

This is not a point of order. A point of order must be raised with regard to the relevance of the material that we're speaking to on our specific committee. This is about putting forward a separate issue.

I ask the chair to rule with respect to that and then I will respectfully ask that the chair place us in camera. I put that forward as a motion.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I haven't got to my point of order yet, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Just a moment. Hold on. Hold on.

There will be no debate on the point of order. You should raise your point of order, but your point of order shouldn't get into debate about the motion you filed.

Let me just set out some parameters. I think it's appropriate for you to raise your notice of motion and speak with respect to it. Our time for this particular portion of the meeting has expired, since we were to go from 8:45 to 9:45 and we're past that time and have concluded. Now, if your point is whether you can move your motion, you can, but—

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

You didn't let me finish—

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Let me finish—

[Kellie Leitch, Conservative, Simcoe—Grey, ON]

Are you challenging the chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Now, just a moment. Let me finish.

The point is that you're entitled to do that, but the time has run out. I've indicated I would suspend this meeting to move to our agenda item, which is consideration of the draft report. If you want to deal with it within that context, you can; if you want to deal with it at the next meeting, you can do that. However, we're not going to debate your motion here.

Therefore, if your point of order is that you want to debate it at this session, I won't allow that, but you can in the next session, if you wish, or you could deal with it when we move in camera to deal with draft instructions, although that's not the point of our business. You can do it then or you can do it subsequently, but you won't do it here and now.

[Ryan Cleary, NDP, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

I appreciate that, Mr. Chair.

My point of order is not to debate the motion. My point of order was first to make sure everybody's on the same page on the fact that I introduced this notice of motion. My point of order is that if we had confirmation that everybody received this notice of motion on October 2, why isn't this notice of motion—this is my point of order—on the agenda for today's meeting?

[The Chair, Conservative, Ed Komarnicki]

Look, until you raised the fact that you wanted to present your motion on the agenda, and I would usually allow for time before we conclude our agenda items for you to deal with it.

It was not brought to my attention that you wish to deal with it today. It would be inappropriate for you to deal with it today, but you can at the next meeting, or you can take some other course of action.

I'm going to suspend, because I don't think that's an appropriate point of order.

[Proceedings continue in camera]