Evidence of meeting #1 for Bill C-32 (40th Parliament, 3rd Session) in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Pablo Rodriguez Liberal Honoré-Mercier, QC
In fact, Mr. Chair, there are two ways to discuss this: there is the partisan approach, as we saw just a little earlier, and the professional, objective approach, which will ensure that the bill moves forward.
I would like to make one last comment before I conclude. Mr. Lake, two years have passed since the last election. Your government has been in power for five years, and you were the ones who prorogued. You cannot blame the opposition for the delays up until now. On our side, we are ready to do serious work and to hear from up to two witnesses an hour so that our work can be constructive. But there are other obligations. We have to proceed in a responsible manner; there are many potential witnesses. By the way, I have already sent in a list of 42 witnesses, which you have probably also received. Did you receive it? Very well.
I would ask you to tone down the rhetoric somewhat. I suggest that we stick to the facts, determine our mode of operation and move on from there. But the opposition will not accept to be blamed for the government's shortcomings.
Liberal
Marc Garneau Liberal Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC
I was pretty well going to say the same thing. I think that if this legislative committee is going to be a success, we need to work together, and we need to do things the proper way.
One of the things this committee must do is also take the time to listen to the witnesses. It's not a question of us making up our minds and going through the motions. We must receive witnesses and we must listen to them and give them a chance to express themselves. We all know--we've had them in our offices in the last year and a half or several years--that this is the moment. This is the time when we will make a very important decision for all Canadians on copyright. I think it behooves us to work together in a constructive manner. We will need all of us to work together; otherwise, this bill will not be the best bill for Canadians.
I would urge my colleagues across the table not to rush this process. I'll not start talking about delays that have occurred in the past. That's not a constructive way to look at things. But I think that we do honestly need to take the time to do this properly, and I think that members of the opposition, who don't have a small army of people to help us in our deliberations--we are in the opposition and pretty thin on the ground--need to take the time to do this thing properly.
Bloc
Serge Cardin Bloc Sherbrooke, QC
I will not go back over Mr. Lake's comments but I do want to touch on an important element. Many witnesses will probably have already submitted documents to many MPs, but there may be others who have not. We might also be receiving voluminous and fact-filled briefs. We must take the time to read them through and through and do our own analysis and work correctly in order to ask the right questions of our witnesses.
Therefore, I will reiterate some of the positions that have already been taken and which appear to have unanimous support on this side: three witnesses, five minutes per witness, a first round of questions of seven minutes and a second of five. But I would like to add that, for the five-minute rounds, the order of questions by members be the same as that in the seven-minute round: opposition parties before the government.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Well, the first round and the second round are never in the same order, so.... I mean, that's representative--
Conservative
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Well, what you're proposing would be an extra round for the NDP over and above government members, which would be outrageous, because within an hour the government would get one round of questions and the opposition would get the balance. That's outrageous.
Look if you want three witnesses an hour and five-minute opening statements, Mr. Chairman, we're fine with that. Seven minutes, five minutes: it follows the normal order. But we have to come back to this issue of scheduling for the committee because this is a big issue.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
Mr. Del Mastro, I'm trying to get us to the point at which we can get to that work plan. There is a proposal in front of you that would give some discretion to the chair, based on the number of witnesses: that there be up to 10 minutes for opening statements, then seven minutes and five minutes for the rounds.
Mr. Del Mastro.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I would suggest that you put it in writing that it's five minutes because if you use “discretion of the chair”, you yourself are going to yourself up to all kinds of widespread criticism, because there's not going to be a person who appears before this committee who doesn't feel that they're worthy of ten minutes and others are worthy of five.
I think the committee has made it very clear that we want five-minute opening statements, and we're okay with seven minutes and five minutes and following the normal routine, and if it's established in stone, then that's the way it works.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gord Brown
So that's the proposal on the table, as moved by Mr. Del Mastro.
Mr. McTeague?
Liberal
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Three witnesses, a maximum of three, then an hour is fine.
Liberal
Dan McTeague Liberal Pickering—Scarborough East, ON
It's fine in the context of an hour. Then I have no difficulty with that.
Conservative
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
That accounts for about 43 minutes of the committee time in that first round. It's 28 minutes for the first round and 15 minutes for the witnesses. What do we do with the next three? We need to be clear on who is getting the other three rounds as we move forward. Again, we have five Conservative members on the committee right now, and there are six opposition members. We need to make sure that three-quarters of the first 28 minutes is going to the opposition. I would suggest that it goes Conservative-Liberal-Conservative for the last three rounds, for the last 15 minutes.