Evidence of meeting #1 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th 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.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Miriam Burke
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum. We can now proceed to the election of the chair. I'm ready to receive motions to that effect.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Before we do, Madam Clerk, we usually have a record of the motions that are being put forward. Do we not have that record today?
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
There usually is tabled with the committee the various positions, the kinds of motions that have been traditionally coming forward. Do we not have that today? It's usually on our desks when we arrive at committee.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I know that, but for the election of chair and vice-chair, everything else is usually here as a guideline for members, without the people's names, of course. So we don't have that today? That's always been our procedure in the past.
Okay, fine.
Conservative
Brian Storseth Conservative Westlock—St. Paul, AB
On a point of order, do you have a copy of the routine proceedings, Wayne? You don't have a copy of that either?
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
You Conservatives have never held anything from us. We have that, yes.
That's fine, Madam Clerk.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I would like to nominate Larry Miller as chair.
The Clerk
It's been moved by Mr. Lemieux that Mr. Miller be elected as chair of the committee.
Are there further motions?
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Miller duly elected chair of the committee.
Before inviting Mr. Miller to take the chair, if the committee wishes, we will now proceed to the election of vice-chairs.
I'm now prepared to receive motions for the position of first vice-chair.
Conservative
The Clerk
It is moved by Mr. Storseth that Mr. Eyking be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.
Are there further motions?
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Eyking duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.
I'm now prepared to receive motions for the second vice-chair.
The Clerk
It is moved by Ms. Bonsant that Mr. Bellavance be elected second vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions?
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Bellavance duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.
I now invite Mr. Miller to take the chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you very much for your support on that. I hope I live up to your expectations.
I want to make a couple of opening remarks. First of all, I congratulate Mark and André on being vice-chairs. I'm very much looking forward to working with you two, and indeed everyone on the committee.
We have a lot of business before us. We're all here. I think in my four and a half years on this committee I've found that although some of the members have changed from time to time, overall we've always had a goal of working towards the betterment of agriculture, and I don't see that changing. At least I certainly hope it doesn't.
You're going to find that as chair I'm going to attempt to do my best to be very non-partisan and fair. When it comes to witnesses, whatever comes out of the routine proceedings as far as timelines go--seven and five, for example--I am going to be very strict that the seven or the five, for whoever has that time, includes the questions and answers. At the end of the meeting, if there's still time for further questions, we can always do that.
I've noticed sometimes in this committee, and in various other committees that I've subbed in on, that the questioning will go right up, say, to the seven and five, and the answer sometimes can take two, three, or four minutes, and I don't think that's fair. I think we'll save that time for the end. So I hope there's no objection to that, and I will treat all witnesses the same way.
With no further ado on that, we have to move into adoption of routine motions.
Now, I have a copy here, a proposal, that I did give to the clerk. However—and this is for André and France maybe—it is not translated, and I apologize for not having done that. But I understand that it has been presented there for review.
So to move on then, has everybody got their copy of it?
Oh, they haven't. Okay.
There are two different copies here of routine motions. One has been translated and one hasn't.
Go ahead, André.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
Larry, we are not getting off to a very good start. I am looking at the routine motions, and if I understand correctly, these proposals come from you. Normally, we do not allow any document to be tabled if it is only in one language. This is the first meeting of the committee, and I would be ill-advised to agree to deal with the document that has just been distributed. In my view, it should not be distributed since there is no French version. It should be drafted in both official languages. I suggest that these proposals be distributed at the committee's next meeting. If we have motions to adopt, we can do them today, but not those ones. This will unfortunately delay our work. I don't want the committee to spend the entire meeting settling this matter, but this is not in French and I cannot work with it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Again, André, I apologize for that. However, there is a copy of routine motions that you do have that can be discussed. With the permission of the committee, I would suggest that we go through those, and if there are any changes in there—some of them are very minor, and in fact most of them are very minor. We probably wouldn't have to come back at another meeting; I think we can do it. Members can speak to their amendments or changes, or even additions, and we can go from there.
Would that be all right, André? We'll work on each individual motion and see where we go from there, rather than just tabling the whole thing. Is that suitable to everyone?
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
The document is in English only. I don't see how we can discuss it. We cannot deal with it.
There is no problem for the other one.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
André, that's the one I'm talking about. We'd table that, and if anyone had any further amendments or changes or additions to it, that would be dealt with verbally.
I guess you would have to use this one. I think we can proceed on the one that has been translated in both languages. Is that okay?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Everybody has a copy in front of them. The first one is on services of analysts. It's pretty routine.
Wayne.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Do you need a motion to that effect, Mr. Chair? I can make that. But on this issue of the analysts from the Library of Parliament, I'm led to believe that some of our more senior analysts are not going to be working for the committee. It will be more junior analysts who will be here. Can you find out if that is the case? If it is, I want to know why, because in terms of analysts at this committee in particular, in terms of agriculture, corporate memory is extremely important. We've always had good reports, good documentation from J-D.
I don't know if that's the case or not, but that's what I've been led to believe.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
J-D is here, but my understanding is, and I think you all know, that in whatever department it is, from time to time there are promotions or advancements, and that's what this is.
J-D is here, and if it's the committee's wish, he could speak to that. I know he's still overseeing—if that's the proper word—this committee as one of his duties.
Do you want J-D to address that issue?
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I don't want to put J-D on the spot, but I want to know what is happening within our research bureau at the Library of Parliament in regard to senior people who we call on for advice.
Is J-D going to be here every meeting?
