Child care?
Evidence of meeting #1 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #1 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Bloc
Jean-Yves Roy Bloc Haute-Gaspésie—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Mr. Chair, I agree that we should pay child's care expenses. In fact, a situation happened at the Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans where an aboriginal person refused to appear because she was unable to find care for her children. I sat on that committee for five years and I believe that Jean-François was the clerk at the time this happened.
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
Paul Steckle Liberal Huron—Bruce, ON
I would propose that we move the original procedure as we've done in the past at in camera meetings, which is that unless otherwise ordered, each committee member is allowed to be accompanied by one staff person at an in camera meeting.
I see no reason for any member to be accompanied by a party member. I think this is politics, and I don't think we need that. We've gotten along just fine. Our people go with us, as committee members, to represent us and to take notes, perhaps, on things we may have missed in the order of doing our work. We can refer to those people when we go back to our respective offices. We don't have to refer to the party.
I therefore submit that we make this the motion at hand.
Conservative
Conservative
David Anderson Conservative Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK
I think each of the parties has contact with their whip's office with regard to committee meetings, so this is just an opportunity to give the parties a chance to have one person from that office in the in camera meeting. There is nothing more to it than that.
Conservative
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I'm leaning toward Mr. Steckle's point of view. I don't think I can support a change, or I don't think it's necessary. Go back to the default, ordinary motions that we're all used to and that we've worked under all these years.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I would like to know what directive is currently applied in this committee.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
At the last session, we kind of did transcripts and staff at in camera meetings in one motion. We've now separated them.
Actually, it was André who moved the following motion, and he kind of combined staff and transcripts:
That one copy of the transcript of all in camera meetings be kept in the clerk's office for consultation by members of the committee, and that unless otherwise ordered, each committee member be allowed to have one staff person present at in camera meetings.
We can either combine them as we did in the last session, or we can keep them separate the way they're laid out as proposed, as in kind of the 30-year-old document, as Pat called it.
Yes, Mr. Martin.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I'd like to recommend that we move for this parliamentary session the exact wording that you had in the last parliamentary session.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
The motion on the table.... No, the one you've got is the one that's on here, not the one that came from the minutes.
We have Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lauzon, and somebody over here was raising a hand--Mr. Boshcoff.
Go ahead, Mr. Boshcoff.
Liberal
Ken Boshcoff Liberal Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I believe we could pass it according to Mr. Steckle's suggestion with this amendment that it would be a staff member who was from the house leader's office or the whip's office or the research bureau. That's the only amendment I could see.
I'd ask you to entertain that.
November 14th, 2007 / 4:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
We have an amendment on the floor, before we get moving forward, that unless otherwise ordered, each committee member would be allowed to be accompanied by one staff person at an in camera meeting, and that staff member could be a member from the house leader's office, the whip's office, or the research department of the party.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
The person could also be from the member's office; that's what's implied, I think, as one staff person.
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
It could be the member's office; we've got that. Now we're going to debate the amendment.
Go ahead, Mr. Bellavance.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
All right, perhaps we might have to check the Standing Orders.
I have in my hands the minutes of the last meeting where we discussed this matter, and it is even more simple that what has just been proposed. The following motion was passed unanimously:
That, unless otherwise ordered, each Committee member be allowed to have one staff person present at in camera meetings.
This includes research staff, the whip, and a staff member from our party. That was the motion that was passed.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Bezan
It just says “one staff person” present at in camera meetings. We didn't say....
This only applies, of course, to in camera meetings.
Next we have Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lauzon.