Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 1st Session) Committee on June 14th, 2006

[Some hon. members]

Hear, Hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Finally, there are the publications staff who are working on the various copies of the bill and who produce the report. There are quite a few of them, so let's give those people a hand.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Now you have a chance for any special comments--as long as it doesn't get too political.

Mr. Owen.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

Very briefly, let me just add my congratulations and thanks to all of the people named, but also to our chair and all members of this committee and their staff.

Sometimes we descend in this House to levels that we're not always comfortable with the next morning, but I think this committee--and committees generally, but certainly this committee--in dealing with such a complex job has done it with grace and towards a common objective. If we haven't completed the job--because this will be never-ending--we've taken a good step forward.

Thank you all.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Tonks.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

Mr. Chair, just as a point of clarification--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'll try not to rule you out of order.

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

--at the point we've reached now, does that make the notice of motion that Mr. Poilievre put forward for extended hours redundant?

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Alan Tonks, Liberal, York South—Weston, ON]

I would just like to say ditto, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. You've done a remarkable job, along with your staff and everybody else. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you, sir.

Mr. Murphy.

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

Thank you, everyone.

This is my first committee experience. They tell me all the committees are like this, so I'm gearing up for that. But I do want to thank you for the good collegial spirit that we came to on some occasions and the good work that we did.

And, Mr. Chairman, I want to thank you. You did a wonderful job in being impartial and listening to people. It wasn't easy, I know, so thank you.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your good humour and for conducting the proceedings of this committee in an impartial manner. You've truly succeeded in helping us to do the best possible job in the time allotted to us.

On a personal note, I'd also like to thank our research and legislative staff as well as our technical advisors. They were of great assistance to us.

Also, if somewhere along the way I managed to offend someone, either because I acted impatiently or as a result of something I may have said, I apologize. It was a pleasure for me to serve on this committee, in spite of the few occasions where tensions were running high.

In the final analysis, Mr. Chairman, you truly succeeded in making this a positive experience for us. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

[Benoît Sauvageau, Bloc, Repentigny, QC]

Let me start by apologizing to you, Mr. Chairman, for almost jumping in before you. It was certainly unintentional.

I'd like to take my cue from Marlene and say that if I offended anyone at any time during our proceedings, I truly am sorry. Sometimes, our emotions get the best of us.

I'd like to thank everyone who, either directly or indirectly, had a hand in this undertaking and worked very effectively. The research staff of all political parties lent their support to us, under often very demanding conditions. And I speak in a completely non-partisan way.

Finally, I'd like to extend my sincerest thanks to the legal experts for their support as well to all those who accompanied us on this adventure. Thank you very much.

[Monique Guay, Bloc, Rivière-du-Nord, QC]

I too would like to thank you, Mr. Chairman. Watching you chair the committee, I was reminded of my two years as caucus chair. It takes someone with an iron hand in a velvet glove. You were up to the task and managed to keep your own emotions in check, which wasn't always easy. So, congratulations on a job well done!

My thanks go out as well to Steve who was part of our team and to Dominique, who has left. We mustn't forget to thank them for the amazing job they did for us.

I've been here for 13 years. To Brian, I'd like to say that this was quite an accomplishment. I've never before seen a committee put in so many hours in so few weeks. Yet, we somehow managed to get the job done.

Mr. Chairman, I look forward to reviewing the legislation in five years' time, if I'm still around.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

I'd like to thank all of the people on the committee, obviously, but also the people behind the scenes: the people who actually fed us, the people who brought us information when it was required, the people who gave us technical assistance, the people who are doing the translation, and all those people who are helping us as staff for the respective political parties as well, because they've had to go beyond the norm, whatever the norm is.

I'd like to say, as someone who is new, like Mr. Murphy, this was a very interesting first time. Some have mentioned it as trial by fire, but I think in the end it was a genuine learning experience for me, not only in terms of process and procedure--and God help us if we have to go through anything quite like this anytime soon--but in terms of the breadth of information and the knowledge that I gained from the witnesses, from our technical panel, and how government works.

Someone mentioned that sometimes legislation is like making sausage. It ain't pretty sometimes, but in the end you come out with something, hopefully, you can be proud of. If we look at how this committee has worked and how we are able to move this along, hopefully we can see some of the same kind of sensibility in the House.

I will finish off by thanking you, Mr. Tilson, for shepherding us along. I appreciate your support throughout.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Other words. Mr. Moore.

[Rob Moore, Conservative, Fundy Royal, NB]

I'll simply congratulate everybody who took part. I think everything that can be said has been said. Especially, I congratulate all of the staff who worked behind the scenes, supposedly to make us look good. I don't know how good we all looked at times, but I think they did a great job. And to everybody who's already been mentioned, thank you for all your work. I think we have a product at the end of the day we can all be proud of.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

Mr. Chair, again, we're going around in circles a little bit, but thank you so much. I know how difficult this was for you, Chair. I've sat with you on another committee that you also chaired, and you do a superb job under very difficult situations. Your sense of humour and your impartiality I think more than anything else really shone through in this committee. It was an intense month and a half that we put in here, so congratulations to you.

I want to say to all the committee members and everyone else, research staff, technical staff, legislative staff, this is a good bill. You should be very, very proud of yourselves. I know I'm proud of myself. I'll take this to my grave, saying I was sitting on the legislative committee that brought in an accountability act that went far beyond anything this government, this Parliament, has ever seen before.

I congratulate all of you. Good work. It's been great working with you. Thank you.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I'd like to focus my thanks particularly on the people who were involved in the early stages of drafting. A lot of the work they did prior to the politicians even getting involved was very difficult, grinding, thankless labour, and they did it with incredible professionalism under trying circumstances and nearly impossible timeframes. They met them with grace and never missed a beat.

I'm not going to name all of them right now, but there are a tremendous number of people, many of whom I see in this room, who were there from Treasury Board, from Justice, and from other parts of the public service, PCO, to put together this package and then ultimately support it throughout all of its stages.

I'd like to thank all of the services and the people who have been supporting us throughout, Mr. Chair, yourself as well. I'd like to thank my staff, who have been incredibly dedicated. James Kusie comes to mind, who works in my office and tries his best, sometimes to no avail, to keep me on track. Thanks to the minister as well for entrusting me with this task and for keeping the faith and the promises that we made.

I'd also like to thank the other members of the committee. Though we had some very direct and heated exchanges, some of them very colourful, I want you to know that despite the moments when the adrenalin was higher than it should have been, I respect all of you deeply as people and fundamentally believe that all of you are here for the right reasons. I believe that those reasons have been achieved in what is a very good final product.

Thank you.

[Daniel Petit, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

I too would like to say thank you, especially since, like Mr. Murphy, I'm a new MP.

I dove head first into this adventure. As a lawyer, it was a interesting experience for me. Normally, I raise legal issues. This time around, I had a hand in making the law. It's an entirely different experience. Most interestingly, and most importantly, we managed to achieve a common goal, despite our differences of opinion.

I'll be able to tell my grandchildren--and I do have grandchildren--that I participated in this process.

Thank you very much.

[James Moore, Conservative, Port Moody—Westwood—Port Coquitlam, BC]

Everything's been said. The only other thing I want to say is that in my three terms in Parliament, there have been three big legislative committees, on Bill C-36, after 9/11, on Bill C-38 on same sex marriage, and now this committee. I think this committee was a real pleasure to model. I had the opportunity to sit on the C-36 committee, but not the C-38 committee.

Also, Pat Martin's not here, but I wish him well and thank him for his contributions. We have to take credit for what the people behind us and around us do. It's a good moment. We made Canada stronger. It's a good day.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

The final word is, this committee is adjourned.