Evidence of meeting #1 for Bill C-2 (39th Parliament, 2nd Session) in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was hours.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
Plus the number that we....
No, we're meeting three weeks. We're meeting today, we're going to meet tomorrow, we're going to meet Thursday, and then we're going to meet on November 13, 14, and 15. Today's meeting counts. There are two hours today. So once we hit November 15, we'll have hit 16 hours. Then on November 19 we could potentially do clause-by-clause in the afternoon for two hours.
12:05 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
November 19 is a Monday.
Have we agreed on the timeframe? Can we vote on the timeframe? Of course, then we would have to make sure that we have the right number of hours.
Mr. Chair, I was under the impression that legislative committees had priority access to the television facilities. So we have priority if ever other committees want to use them. There are two rooms.
Let us vote on the timeframe motion to start with.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
As I understand it, there isn't any disagreement, or I have not heard any, with the Tuesday and Thursday and Wednesday timeframe that you suggested.
So we have agreement on that?
12:05 p.m.
An hon. member
In general.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
In general? Yes, okay.
So now we can proceed to determine our days, which is I think what you were suggesting.
12:05 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Right. The proposal is to meet Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., bearing in mind that legislative committees have priority access to rooms set up for television. There are two in the West Block.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
Yes. Good point.
So we have agreement on the days? The only suggestion I would make, if I could, is that if everyone is comfortable with the one exception, on Monday, November 19, we would do clause-by-clause from 3:30 to 5:30.
12:05 p.m.
An hon. member
It's all right.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
12:05 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
Why do we not start with clause-by-clause consideration on November 20, since we do not have a tight schedule? People may not necessarily be here on the 19th.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
I am in favour of Mr. Ménard's motion that, this week and the week following the break, the committee meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and then on Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., and that clause-by-clause consideration start on Tuesday.
I have a suggestion to make, but I will not propose an amendment to the amendment yet because I would first like to see what people think. I suggest that, once we get to clause-by-clause consideration, the committee look at the possibility of meeting from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday. So on Tuesday, November 20, the committee would meet from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., and on Wednesday, November 21 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. If we needed to, we could meet on Thursday, November 22 from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
12:05 p.m.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
There are going to be meetings on Tuesday and Thursday. I don't know if we are going to start with these.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
I have two points on Ms. Jennings' comments.
First of all, on Thursday the bill is supposed to be reported back to the House by midnight, but if we're making amendments, getting them translated, and reporting the bill back to the House, that doesn't give us much time to have a two-hour meeting on that day.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
That's a very good point. I should clarify that it needs to be back to the House by Friday, the 23rd. That is just to clarify that.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Gerald Keddy Conservative South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS
Okay, thank you.
Either way, it still jams us for time, and that was the intent of going with the Monday. If we go with a two-hour session on Monday, it saves us from sitting for four hours on the Tuesday. It's exactly the same amount of time. If you want to double up meetings on Tuesday, then we may have to do that, but the point of sitting on Monday is to avoid doing that on Tuesday and to avoid sitting on Thursday, unless we get into some kind of an impasse. It's a much better agenda to sit on Monday for two hours, Tuesday for two hours, Wednesday for two hours, and if we have to meet on Thursday morning as an absolute necessity, we could, but that is really jamming the clerks and everyone else to report it back to the House.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Marlene Jennings Liberal Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, QC
I am having trouble understanding Mr. Keddy's logic. He is proposing that we sit two hours on Monday, November 19, two hours on Tuesday, November 20, and two hours on Wednesday, November 21 if necessary.
My suggestion is to sit for four hours on Tuesday, November 20 and two hours on Wednesday, November 21. If people are worried about all the work for the clerk and the support staff at that point, we could agree, if we have not finished by 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 21, to continue until we finish clause-by-clause consideration. That way, the support staff would have all day on November 22 to do the work necessary and the Chair could report on the bill to the House.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Rick Dykstra
Mr. Keddy, I'll give you a chance to respond, but first we have Mr. Ménard and Mr. Comartin.
12:10 p.m.
Bloc
Réal Ménard Bloc Hochelaga, QC
We try not to have meetings on Mondays and Fridays because some people are in their ridings on Mondays. I prefer Ms. Jennings' motion. We have time for clause-by-clause consideration. Some people are not on the Hill on Mondays and others are not here on Fridays. We have to bear that in mind. Let us sit for longer on Tuesday, and on Wednesday and Thursday evenings if necessary. We really have to keep Mondays for our constituency work.
12:10 p.m.
NDP
Joe Comartin NDP Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I'm opposed to doing them on Monday as well, but more because of the need for the 24 hours' notice. We're going to finish evidence on the 15th, so that gives us one working day and then the two days on the weekend to prepare any final amendments we may not have ready, and then give the notice on Monday morning so that it would be ready to go on Tuesday. I think we should do the Tuesday and Wednesday and then fall back on Thursday if we have to.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal