Canadian Heritage Committee on June 22nd, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Mr. Kotto, go ahead, please.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I move that we put the motion to a recorded vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay, we'll take a recorded vote then.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mauril, could you explain to us again exactly what your proposal is?

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

You want me to explain it in English? I thought I had, but it's not accepted. It's a suggestion I made...I sense some tension, some hesitation. Mr. Kotto's intentions are legitimate. I was coming with a suggestion that might bridge that, but it doesn't seem to be working. That's fine.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Can you explain it again?

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

What you suggested is fine. You're talking about the work plan or information that we could elicit during the summer.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I'll explain again. Was it a bad translation? Do you want me to try to, by repetition, convince people? Does that work with you guys, or are you trying to get me to convince Mr. Kotto by repetition? No, I won't do that. He's a very intelligent man, and he understood what I wanted to say, and it's fine.

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

The motion as it's presently worded is ambiguous and contradictory, and it doesn't work. Now if Mr. Kotto can rephrase it to something that does make a little more--

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

I won't be able to report it to the House.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

That means we have lots of time. We're going to be adopting it and reporting. Let's vote on it and go for supper.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Yes, Mr. Kotto?

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I requested a vote on the motion, and I would like it to be recorded.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Chair, if we're going to be going to vote, and the vote is going to be recorded, I am going to be voting against it. I think it's important, if it's going to be recorded, and I want it to be understood why. I have the highest respect for Mr. Kotto, and I know he has the best of intentions, but I agree with Mr. Fast that unfortunately the wording of the motion is really contradictory and ambiguous. I think this committee--and I know the government--wants to move forward with a museums policy. That's a given. That has been an unqualified statement by the minister. However, as I say, because the motion is ambiguous and contradictory within itself, I will unfortunately be obliged to vote against it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Just as a point of clarification, a report back to the minister from this committee does not necessarily tie the hands of the minister.

[Maka Kotto, Bloc, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Exactement.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

In my estimation, we've sent reports. I look at the report that went from this committee on copyright, and then Bill C-60 came back and didn't even resemble it. So I will take the motion. I don't see how we will tie the minister's hands if we get into this discussion. We can work with the working paper. We can deal with whatever. We can make some suggestions. Our suggestions will either be accepted or they will not.

[Jim Abbott, Conservative, Kootenay—Columbia, BC]

Mr. Chairman, we are getting into debate, and I'm sorry about that, but “the new museum policy discussed in 2005” is totally ambiguous. I don't have a clue what that refers to. Secondly, “the new policy, once developed, be studied by the present Committee before its introduction in the House”, is meant to tie the minister. That's why I say it's ambiguous, and it's contradictory, and quite frankly, I can't imagine any minister of any Crown of any government in any legislature or parliament being prepared to take that kind of direction from a committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Okay. We've debated the situation. Mr. Kotto has asked for a vote. I will ask for a vote to be recorded.

(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 4)

We'll talk about it in the fall.

With that said, have a good summer. The meeting is adjourned.