Agriculture Committee on Dec. 12th, 2007

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

In order to continue, it requires unanimous consent. This side is not prepared to grant it.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

We are in an official committee meeting here, Mr. Chair.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

These are the official Standing Orders.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

The meeting's been called till 5:30. The bells are ringing. It's a 30-minute bell; the vote is at 5:45--

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

It's a 10-minute bell.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

On a point of order, could I get come clarification?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

On a point of order, I'm just going to read into the record the Standing Orders. This is Standing Order 115(5):

Notwithstanding Standing Orders 108(1)(a) and 113(5), the Chair of a standing, special, legislative or joint committee shall suspend the meeting when the bells are sounded to call in the Members to a recorded division, unless there is unanimous consent of the members of the committee to continue to sit.

The bells are ringing. My duty is to suspend this meeting unless you have unanimous consent to continue to sit through.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

The vote is at 4:45.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

The bells are ringing; I do have a duty.

Mr. Storseth has a point of order. He does have privileges at the table. He can raise points of order.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

He was wrong before.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I do apologize for that.

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

No problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

When he returns to the table, Mr. Anderson loses his....

[Brian Storseth, Conservative, Westlock—St. Paul, AB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I think we need to just all sit back for a second. Could you clarify if these are 10-minute or 30-minute bells? Then I'd appreciate the ruling of the chair on where we're moving from this. We don't need to get into some animosity about this. We can relax.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

According to what we're getting from the table in the chamber, this is a 30-minute bell. The vote is at 4:50. While that's contrary to what's coming from the government side, regardless, the standing order is in place; my duty is to suspend with the bells unless there's unanimous consent to extend.

Is there unanimous consent?

On this point of order, go ahead, Mr. Bellavance.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

I did not want to get ahead of you, but I was going to ask for unanimous consent.

I still wanted to make it clear that Mr. Lauzon had already indicated that he would not agree. I do not know what is going on, why we are in such a hurry. Everyone said that they were very happy to see the minister. I was the only one to feel a little rushed and to say that he was appearing out of the blue, but that we were still happy to see him before Christmas. Now, all of a sudden, the parliamentary secretary no longer wants to see the minister.

I am sure that the minister is not uncomfortable; since the session started, he has been answering our questions, and things were rolling along nicely. I think that we should try for unanimous consent.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. St. Amand has a point of order.

[André Bellavance, Bloc, Richmond—Arthabaska, QC]

We are asking him questions and he is answering, as always.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Mr. Chair, we can return right after the votes.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Just wait, please. I recognized Mr. St. Amand.

[Lloyd St. Amand, Liberal, Brant, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The minister is here. He presents to me as being very anxious to do his duty--very anxious, for instance, to entertain questions from the committee. I'd be surprised if the minister wanted to take leave now, when he doesn't need to be in the chamber--nor do any of us--for another 20 minutes. He's come here and he's accommodating us. I suspect he would like to accommodate us for about 15 more minutes.

[Gerry Ritz, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

My concern isn't the chamber; it's the cabinet meeting I left upstairs.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Lauzon, you had a point of order.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

What if those are 10-minute bells? You'd better be damned sure.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Do you have a point of order you wanted to raise, or is it on this point of order?

Go ahead, Mrs. Skelton.