Agriculture Committee on Oct. 7th, 2010

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

I'm not challenging anybody! I'm just telling you the rules.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Just for clarification, the chair has been brought back to the table.

Just for the chair to know what happened, the Conservatives got off topic quite a bit, so I tried to bring it back to order as best I could, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

That's your prerogative as the chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Good luck if you can get them back to the relevant topic at hand.

Mr. Bellavance is on the—

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

Mr. Chair, I had the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

We have a speakers' list....

They're challenging you, Mark. Get back in here.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Clerk, we have to bring this to a vote, right?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Chloé O'Shaughnessy]

That's right.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Okay. There's a motion challenging the chair.

We're going to have a vote on the motion that the decision of the chair be sustained.

(Ruling of the chair sustained [See Minutes of Proceedings])

I am staying here, and I resume the meeting.

We'll go to Mr. Bellavance.

Mr. Richards, on a point of order.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Wild Rose, AB]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I have to ask a question on procedure here. Because it's the ruling of the chair being sustained, does the chair have the right to decide a tie vote when it's his ruling that's being challenged? It's a bit of a conflict of interest, is it not?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

The clerk says this is all kosher.

Let's move on to Mr. Bellavance.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Since we started this morning, there has been either a misunderstanding or bad faith on the Conservatives' part, because what we are talking about is not whether we are in favour of or opposed to Bill C-474. Since we started this morning, the parliamentary secretary has been making big speeches to say he is opposed to Bill C-474. We know that. What we are discussing is the possibility of having a 30-day extension for this bill. I repeat, that should be a mere formality. I have never seen a discussion drag on about this in any other committee and I want to make things clear. Randy is right, and even though it was in camera, it doesn't bother me to repeat it: I did not want us to spend the entire time we have between now and Christmas on one subject, whether it be Bill C-474 or something else, because ideas were already firmly entrenched and we had to give priority to the list of witnesses we should hear on this and be sure that an appropriate number of meetings will be devoted to the bill. What we are discussing here is whether we want to be sure we can do that. As a committee, it will simply facilitate our work when we set the agenda we are supposed to have set at 8:45 this morning. Then we will be able to say that we have all the latitude we need to consider the priority matters, one of which is Bill C-474.

I will remind you that I was even opposed to 10 meetings being devoted to this bill and I will continue to oppose that. We had reached a compromise, that we might need three or four meetings to hear all the witnesses and finish it, but we are going to have until December 10 to do that, not until October 22, if we don't agree to Alex's motion. So it is just to facilitate our work so we can set an agenda and devote a particular number of meetings to Bill C-474, a particular number of meetings to reviewing the programs, and another particular number of meetings, obviously, so we can complete the report on young and beginning farmers.

So I don't see what the Conservatives are aiming for when they make big speeches to tell us how awful the bill is. This is not where that will be decided; it will be decided in the House. That is where the fate of the bill will be settled, by voting for or against it. Here, we just want to know whether we should have the latitude, as a committee, to be able to put it in the right place on the agenda between now and December 10. That doesn't mean we will be talking about it until December 10; there is a big difference.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Thank you.

Mr. Atamanenko.

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

Before I say a few words here, I'm getting tired of hearing slanderous remarks against Wayne by Mr. Richards.

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

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

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

I can say this.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

On a point of order, Mr. Storseth.

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

Mr. Atamanenko is very close to breaching Mr. Richards' parliamentary privileges. The fact of the matter is that in a court of law, if you want to say somebody is being slanderous—and I'm sure Mr. Valeriote knows this—the person has to be telling a lie.

When Mr. Richards is quoting factual information that Mr. Easter did flip-flop on the gun registry, that he did say for 13 years or longer that he was going to vote that it was a bad bill, and that he did flip over. So now if you want to say that he's being overly partisan, I'm fine with that, but to say somebody is being slanderous is going too far.

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

Okay. I withdraw my comment. I would like to say that he's being overly partisan and I would like to say that there are other places to do this, such as in an election campaign.

I would just like to say that I don't often defend on a personal basis members of other parties, but if Mr. Richards would have spent half the time that Mr. Easter has spent throughout his career defending farmers, then I think we'd all be much better off. I'll leave it at that.

There have been a couple of points that have been raised. For the record, Brazil is a successful country in regard to GMOs--

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

On a point of order, Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Mr. Chairman, when you stepped out of the room, Mr. Eyking made the point that we are not to attack other members. I wish Mr. Atamanenko would listen to that advice. It was just five minutes ago. Mr. Eyking was very clear on that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

He did withdraw the slanderous comment.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

But again, he continued attacking him after withdrawing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Actually, I heard him praising Mr. Easter quite a bit.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

And attacking Mr. Richards.