Public Safety Committee on Nov. 13th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Ms. Priddy.

[Penny Priddy, NDP, Surrey North, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Could someone make note of the fact that I really would like to see it say “family care” and not just “child care” for discussion next time, please?

Thank you.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

The next one is on priority of legislation, which is a new one for this committee. It's to speed up the process with private members' or government bills.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Look, I think that—

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

You need to be recognized by the chair, Mr. Dosanjh.

Go ahead.

[Ujjal Dosanjh, Liberal, Vancouver South, BC]

Thank you.

I think this is going a bit far, trying to control what a committee can or can't do. Committees are essentially their own bosses, as is Parliament collectively, and from time to time a committee may decide to do something. If Parliament wants to limit the terms of reference of the committee to certain things, then Parliament can do that collectively.

I don't believe this should be a rule. We can visit this issue from time to time if some members feel that some bill should take priority over everything else.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

It would be easy to ignore private members' bills.

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

They have a six-month rule.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

Yes, but they get put off.

[Sue Barnes, Liberal, London West, ON]

Yes. It's a six-month rule for a reason.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Mr. Mayes.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

Mr. Chair, I always thought that committees were at the pleasure of the House and that we were responsible to the House to make sure that we do the business of the House in a timely fashion.

I ran into this issue when I chaired the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs. I checked to see whether there was a policy. There wasn't a policy, but the bill that was sent to us was definitely something the committee wanted to deal with.

My interpretation is that the committee is at the pleasure of the House, and so we should do the business of the House, as the House sets that priority. If it's forwarded by the House as a bill, I think it's a priority.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Ms. Brown.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

The convention, as I understand it, is about government bills. Prior to the government of 2004 to 2006, a lot of private members' business was not votable. In other words, it was to create discussion around a new subject and get Parliament thinking about it. If you were lucky, you would put a bill forward, it would be debated, and in the next session the government might pick it up and make it a government bill.

But I sure hate having the committee strangled by private members' bills. I call it everybody's private hobby horse coming forward in a bill, and to set aside an important study you're doing for a private member's bill.... I don't want to do that. I don't mind a government bill.

[Colin Mayes, Conservative, Okanagan—Shuswap, BC]

I should clarify that. It's only government bills.

[Bonnie Brown, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Only government bills, yes. But don't forget, the House now sends us these private members' bills, because they're all votable, which is another hare-brained scheme that happened in the last few years.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Let's have order here.

Mr. Cullen.

[Roy Cullen, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

I was going to make the same point, that by convention, by operation of this committee, I think we work things out. Even with government bills, if we were seized with an important issue and a study, to think that if suddenly a bill were presented we'd have to drop everything.... Being reasonable people, we'll work through that, but to put it into the rules of the committee, I think, would be wrong. In a worst-case scenario, the government could manipulate that agenda. I'm sure they wouldn't, but it's something we need to be cautious about.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

I guess you're getting some feedback.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

That's fine. That's what we wanted to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

Monsieur Ménard.

[Serge Ménard, Bloc, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I share the opinion of Mr. Dosanjh. We would not like to see that added to the rules.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

All right.

[Dave MacKenzie, Conservative, Oxford, ON]

We'll decide as a committee next Tuesday, and we'll live with that.

The next one was the 48 hours' notice on motions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Garry Breitkreuz]

This seems to have been the practice of the committee anyway.