Evidence of meeting #71 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
Yes, absolutely. If someone else wants to go ahead, that's fine but--
Liberal
Ken Boshcoff Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
I have a question for the mover. What if this resolution passes and it's not unanimous?
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
Yes, the question from Mr. Boshcoff to you, Mr. Atamanenko, is that you're asking for the unanimous support of this committee. What if there is less than unanimous support for it? Do you still want this amendment?
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
The goal is to write a letter to the Auditor General—
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
But I think the word “unanimous” is the operative word here that we're having some difficulty with. If you don't find unanimous support for your amendment, does that mean your amendment fails, or do you want to take that word “unanimous” out of there?
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
I would be willing to do that, as long as the motion is passed.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
I think it makes it a little more palatable to take that word out. I don't know. I can't prejudge the vote, but I would suggest that this may cause us some problems.
Is there anyone else? Wayne.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Yes. On that point, Mr. Chair, I think it would be better if it was really that the standing committee write a letter requesting an investigation into the government's conduct. That can be done by majority vote. There's no question the government will want to cover up some of the facts and the costs that they've spent in terms of the parliamentary secretary's letter-writing campaign, in terms of the minister's travels across the west, which were specifically targeted to attacking the Wheat Board and undermining its credibility. I think it would need to be—
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
No, it's a point of order. What Mr. Easter is proposing is an amendment.
Conservative
Larry Miller Conservative Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON
All I'm suggesting, Mr. Chairman, is that if he wants to propose an amendment, then he should propose the amendment.
Liberal
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I was just suggesting a friendly amendment to Mr. Atamanenko, but in any event, if you want to try with the unanimous support first, that's fine. I'll hold it until later.
Liberal
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I'm going to talk to this, Mr. Chair.
Did we remove “unanimous” from that or not? I didn't hear whether—
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
Basically he was wanting unanimous consent to put a friendly amendment forward. I think really it's inconsequential.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
In the form it's in, we're not going to give our consent to that. I can tell you that right now. Mr. Atamanenko never talked to me prior to bringing the amendment here.
What I said the other day was that I thought it was not the role of the committee to be taking the position of a third party, as a specific position of the committee. So that was part of my opposition to the motion. I did make the suggestion to Mr. Atamanenko that it would be far more appropriately worded if he were to take out the third party.
I did not commit us to supporting that, and we are not going to support the motion. But we may be able to make some amendments that would enable us to do that. So I'm going to ask if I can make a couple of amendments to the motion as well, and then perhaps we can come to support for—
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
If it's an amendment, there's another amendment, but we have to deal with the last one first.
I think what we're going to do is put his amendment forward and vote on that. Are you prepared to let us do that?
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
As long as we get the opportunity to do our amendments to the motion.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
Mr. Atamanenko, because he is the mover of the first motion, has the prerogative of putting forward a change to his motion, if he wishes to do that.
At this point in time, that is the motion we're now dealing with, as we've just heard it worded. If you want to make an amendment to that motion, you're on.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I can make that amendment now, or do you have to pass that before we make the amendment to it?
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Paul Steckle
We'll reread the motion. Is there agreement on taking the word “unanimous” out of there?
Procedural Clerk
I'll reread the motion as per the discussion that Mr. Atamanenko and I had:
That the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food write a letter to the Honourable Sheila Fraser, Auditor General of Canada, indicating the Agriculture Committee's support for a thorough investigation into the government's conduct in spending by the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food throughout the recent Canadian Wheat Board barley marketing plebiscite.
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I would add as well an additional section, which is that we call for investigation into the conduct and spending by the Canadian Wheat Board throughout the recent Canadian Wheat Board barley marketing plebiscite, as well as calling for an investigation into the conduct and spending by the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments throughout the recent Canadian Wheat Board barley marketing plebiscite.
Mr. Atamanenko wants to look into the government spending and conduct. We add the Canadian Wheat Board to that, because it's a government agency and it's appropriate that we do that, and also the Saskatchewan and Manitoba governments to find out their role, their conduct in spending in the recent barley marketing plebiscite as well.