Agriculture Committee on Oct. 20th, 2009

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'm kind of answering where I'm going with this.

The problem in deciding who has the more urgent motion and which one comes before the other is that this one is very specific. There are two dates available; today was one of them and the other one is the 27th. If Mr. Bellavance is asking consent to move his motion forward, then yes, we should see whether there is consent for it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I believe that's all you are asking, isn't it?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I think there's an actual timeline associated with it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I would take it then that we have unanimous consent.

Did you want to add to that discussion, Mr. Storseth?

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

I just wanted to suggest that we move Mr. Bellavance's motion for unanimous consent, right now.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Shipley.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

I would like a clarification. Is that the only person who's going to be a witness for two hours?

I think we should read the motion. It reads: That the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food invite Mr. Olivier de Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to brief committee members on his report on food security and sovereignty in a video conference on October 27, 2009, from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

That would mean that we have no witnesses other than this one individual.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

That is correct.

[Bev Shipley, Conservative, Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON]

We had an hour today with five witnesses, based on an issue around fusarium and DON. We are now going to bring on another three or four witnesses for an hour to deal with it from the departmental side.

I don't have an issue, André, with this. Spending two hours, though, takes away from what I think we need to be doing on other business.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I think we have unanimous consent to deal with the motion, but I have just a reminder that out of the steering committee there were recommendations, which we'll probably have time to discuss on Thursday, that suggested witnesses and issues for that day.

Is everybody clear with that?

[Pierre Lemieux, Conservative, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'd like to bring up the matter of the steering committee.

I think it's important that all members of this committee realize that the steering committee only provides advice to the main committee. As the main committee, we must review what the steering committee has submitted, and we must either accept it, amend it, change it, or whatever we want to do with it. I think we need to leave time to do this, and I don't think we're treating anything in a proper manner here, when we're basically chockablock at today's meeting with witnesses. Now we're trying to cram in some committee business on the side.

Mr. Chair, you've raised now the steering committee report, which we haven't looked at. I think we should just go back to witnesses. That's what today was scheduled for. Let's show due diligence and respect for the witnesses who have come, because what's going to end up happening is that we cut into witness time, when in fact today was scheduled for fusarium.

Let's complete our study on fusarium. If the committee wants to do committee business, let's schedule committee business and not try to do two or three things all at the same time, shuffling things around and ending up shunting our witnesses off to the side, when they've traveled to be here. They've prepared to be here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay. That's a fair point.

Again, there was a request made for unanimous consent to deal with Mr. Bellavance's motion. Do I have it or not?

[Some hon. members]

Yes.

[An hon. member]

No.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We don't have unanimous consent.

Mr. Atamanenko.

[Alex Atamanenko, NDP, British Columbia Southern Interior, BC]

Do I have unanimous consent for my motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

It would be number five in the order.

We don't have unanimous consent for it either, Mr. Atamanenko.

There's a point of order.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

I think there are two issues. One is whether we can move the motion forward to discuss it, and the other is whether we approve the motion. Mr. Shipley had a problem with the wording of the motion, but I'm not sure he had a problem with moving it forward to discuss it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Yes, but someone else did.

[Larry Bagnell, Liberal, Yukon, YT]

Someone else did?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Lemieux had a problem with the first one, and Mr. Hoback with Mr. Atamanenko's.

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

At what point did the chair indicate that there would be time set aside to discuss these motions? Was it at the beginning of the meeting?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

It was requested at the start of the meeting, and everybody agreed. We just spent the last 15 minutes—

[Frank Valeriote, Liberal, Guelph, ON]

With all due respect, Mr. Chair, you set the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, which everyone agreed to, and now suddenly you're veering away from a commitment you made at the beginning, if I'm getting this right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

I'm not veering away from any commitment.