Evidence of meeting #36 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Did Mr. Bellavance say something about removing...? No? Did I misunderstand?
9:35 a.m.
Bloc
André Bellavance Bloc Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I said something, but if you aren't listening, I can't do anything about it.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
We're going to go right to the motions.
We skip the first two from Mr. Easter. Now we're going to the Weatherill report.
Wayne, do you want to move the motion on that one?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Yes, I will move that motion, Mr. Chair. And I will state at the beginning that I do not see it as a priority right now. I believe we should go with the steering committee report and certainly start the biotech study as well.
I believe that at some point in time we need a review of the Weatherill report. We had a subcommittee that spent months as well meeting on that issue. From everything I understand, very few of the recommendations of the Weatherill report have been adopted by the Government of Canada. We need someone to lay the facts on the table about just where we're at in terms of CFIA and food safety. They still can't tell us the number of inspectors. We've seen a lot of information come out over the last couple of weeks from Bob Kingston and others. I do think that at some point in time in the new year we need to at least spend a day hearing from the government and the union on just where we're at on the implementation of that report and on its impact on food safety and on producers.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
My understanding is that we're not withdrawing, but we're going to park it until the new year. You might be able to get some answers in the next few weeks. We'll see what happens.
Okay. We'll go to Mr. Lemieux.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thanks, Chair.
I suppose it's a friendly suggestion. We're trying to do housekeeping and basically clean up the motions.
Maybe I could suggest something to Mr. Easter. He's saying that it's important. It's just that it's not important right now in view of the other things we want to do. So perhaps in the interest of housecleaning, if Mr. Easter withdraws the motion, he can always table it again. At least it's off the books, in a sense. Otherwise we're going to end up debating this and we won't have dealt with it, which kind of goes back to my earlier point. As we move forward, we're going to be looking at the schedule again as we try to fill up our meetings after Christmas. So perhaps we can remove this one now, and Mr. Easter can table it in the new year if he still feels it's important.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
No, I'm not debating this. This is more procedural, about withdrawing.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Officially, Clerk, do you have to table it until into the new year? What's the procedure here? I do not want to withdraw it, because I do think we need it pending, but I certainly do not see us bringing it forward before February, when we're into 2011. So what's the procedure we need to follow to get there?
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
Okay, then, you don't need a motion to table it. So I will just leave it alone.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
It's untidy, but this is a public meeting, so we can go back to the record, so if I bring it up before December--
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I guess, Chair, the only point I'm bringing up is that Mr. Easter can bring it up any time at steering committee as they set the schedule. So if we're housekeeping, let's housekeep. It's not a big point. That's all I'm suggesting.
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Sometimes, if you're doing housekeeping, you don't move furniture.
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
9:35 a.m.
Conservative
9:35 a.m.
Liberal
The Vice-Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Okay, we're moving on to page 3.
I'm going to call it “parking it”, and the clerk says that's fine. It's a new word. We'll call it “parking it”; we're not driving it.
We're going to specific risk management. It's André's motion, and he mentioned parking it too. Okay.
Alex, you're up next on your producer cars. As you know, we're probably going to have the railroad in, too, so I don't know if that's tied in.
Go ahead, Mr. Atamanenko.
9:40 a.m.
NDP
Alex Atamanenko NDP British Columbia Southern Interior, BC
It never hurts to have some insurance. It never hurts to have some clout when dealing with the railway companies. I think passing this motion would give all of us a little bit more backup when we deal with these guys. As far as I know, nobody around this table is happy with what the railways are doing, so I would like to have this motion stand, and hopefully be adopted.
9:40 a.m.
Liberal
9:40 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
So this motion is now on the floor for debate? Is that what you're saying?