Industry Committee on March 24th, 2011

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Maybe we could hear an argument from Mr. Rota as to why he thinks this extraordinary measure is necessary at this point in time.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I have a feeling he'd want to tell us that, actually.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

I'd be very curious as to why they would show such contempt for the process here and for the impartiality of the clerk's advice to the chair of the committee to immediately pass a bill. It's unprecedented in my experience. Obviously there's something so critically important here that we would break into our study on the Investment Canada Act once again to deal with something like this.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

The reason is that we have gone through Bill C-568 to some extent. I feel we've come to a conclusion and I think both sides are pretty well content with sending it back to the House. We've confirmed what we believed. If the honourable member would prefer, if the chair would prefer, we could move to clause-by-clause consideration and go through it--

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Absolutely. If we want to, then I'm absolutely--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Just a minute, Mr. Lake. Let him finish.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

We could move to clause-by-clause consideration and then send it to the House. I don't see any major changes happening. I just was hoping that we could send it back and not have to worry about going through it, because I think we're all in agreement that it will go back and then be taken care of by the House.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Mr. Chair, I think we have an agreement. We'll call the officials, and when they can come before us, we'll do clause-by-clause consideration. I don't think that's a problem from our side.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

If there is an election called on Saturday or whenever, we may not have another committee meeting before an election. Why are we even bothering to do this today? What happens to it if there is an election? It dies. Is that not correct?

[A voice]

Yes, that's correct.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Instead of seeing witnesses for our study--witnesses we've seen once every two or three weeks--we're dealing with this today. I don't understand why we're dealing with it today.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

The only reason we're dealing with it today is that Mr. Rota put in a motion, and we have enough time for it to be debated today. That's the only reason I can give you, but if you wanted another reason from Mr. Rota, we could have him answer.

Go ahead, Mr. Lake, and then maybe Mr. Rota would like to speak to that issue.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Just to reiterate, we've got witnesses who want to appear before us on the ICA, so surely we can call the officials. If they can make it here before 5:30 p.m. and the end of the meeting, we'd be glad to go to clause-by-clause consideration. That would allow us to move directly back to the Investment Canada Act study which is, I think, what we're here for today.

We're amenable to what Mr. Rota proposed.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Go ahead, Mr. Rota.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

Just for the record, could I...? Okay, forget it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Masse, were you trying to get my attention?

[Brian Masse]

No, but thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Does anybody else wish to comment while we're waiting for Mr. Rota?

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

It's too late. You're right. We let you have the debate because we challenged the chair and won that, and I think we have a motion that passed. We challenged the chair and we won, and I think we should--

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

The motion was to sustain the chair, not the motion that--

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

The motion has passed.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

No, the motion hasn't passed.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

The challenge has.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

Yes, so we're allowed to debate the motion, since you brought it forward.

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

You suggested going clause by clause, and we've said yes. We agree with that. We'll get the officials to come and we'll go clause by clause as per your suggestion.