Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on June 13th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Owen.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Mr. Chair, I'd only add that this would fit well within the definition of a made-in-Canada climate change policy.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Murphy.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Just to—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Are you going to do the same thing?

[Marlene Jennings, Liberal, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC]

No, he's not. I'll kick him if he does. Sorry, I didn't say that.

[Brian Murphy, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Well, in all seriousness, we've had a very compressed time, but it's a fairly poignant session of this committee when we have witnesses talking about protecting our competitive advantage globally. Innovation should be important to all of us. This is the blood and guts of this organization, and despite every opportunity to cross-examine or get out of this group that came before us, there was no compelling reason not to put them on the same footing as Canada Post and VIA Rail with respect to trade secrets, financial, commercial, scientific, or technical information.

I totally respect what Export Development said. Of course, they had no problem. There are protections under section 18 of the Access to Information Act, there is protection under the PIPEDA regulations, but we already have exceptions in this near-perfect act. The case for this group was perhaps the most compelling. So I don't know how, if members of the committee were listening carefully to that témoinage, they could resist voting for this amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Anything else?

We'll vote on L-19.

(Amendment negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

So L-20.1, on clause 166, fails? It's gone...?

We're going to leave that. Just ignore what I said there. We'll set down that little debate for a moment.

(Clause 150 as amended agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

There are no amendments for clause 151.

(Clause 151 agreed to on division)

(On clause 152)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We're on New Democrat amendment 17, on page 132.

I don't think we've done that, Mr. Martin.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

We will withdraw NDP-17.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

So we'll proceed to NDP-17.1, Mr. Martin, on page 132.1.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm happy to move NDP-17.1, which amends clause 152 with a very important, very poignant amendment, brief though it may be. It creates the obligation to “disclose a draft report of an internal audit of a government institution”.

This is a very important amendment in that we all know that the sponsorship scandal was in fact unearthed due to a draft report. The pertinent information that revealed the scandal was in fact from a draft report. We want to make sure that, through access to information, draft reports of an internal audit of a government institution are in fact made available to access to information requests.

(Amendment agreed to on division)

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Holy moly, we're on a roll. More, more!

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're on the air, Mr. Martin.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Oh, right.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

(Clause 152 as amended agreed to on division)

(Clauses 153 to 160 inclusive agreed to on division)

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

We've already dealt with clause 161.

Mr. Martin, we're going to go to new clause 161.1, in amendment NDP-18, on page 134.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Do I have the floor, Mr. Chair? Are you waiting for a motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You do, sir. It is your proposed motion.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I have a feeling that it's not going to go much further.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Well, I have to move it, but you've made a good guess.

[Pat Martin, NDP, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

I will move NDP-18.