Canadian Heritage Committee on June 2nd, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

The committee decided on Tuesday that it would move to a different set of agreements, and that for various reasons, this would be discussed today. A majority agreed to this. As chair, I go with what the majority of my committee tells me to do, and that is what we are doing right now.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

Madam Chair, if I could, I would also like to express that we didn't have the 48 hours. It's been less than 24 hours since we voted on this.

I'm also very disappointed that we had a slate this morning from 8:45 to 9:45 and we got cut off, for the only witness we brought here today.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Waugh, I would remind you that in the first round, after Mr. Van Loan had spoken for the Conservatives, the next member on the order was from the New Democratic Party. Mr. MacGregor decided he had no questions. I then moved to—

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

The first time you did. You never asked him about the second time, though.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Obviously, Mr. MacGregor can speak for himself, but as Mr. MacGregor said he had no questions, I assumed that being the only member of his party at this table, he still did not have any questions.

[Kevin Waugh, Conservative, Saskatoon—Grasswood, SK]

You don't know that for sure, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. MacGregor, did I cut you off? Did you have a question?

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

With respect, Mr. Waugh, I didn't have any follow-up questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Thank you very much.

I then turned to the next on that list, and that was meant to be the Liberals. Mr. O'Regan was the person who said he wanted to say something. He moved a motion. This committee voted by a majority to move to clause-by-clause consideration, because he had no other questions. Mr. Samson had no questions.

I think we are following what I am hearing from the members of the committee with regard to questions. Therefore, we will now—

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, just to that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

In fact, after the Liberals had no questions, we moved to you, Mr. Maguire and Mr. Waugh. On a five-minute round, I actually gave you seven minutes and thirty seconds. You were given due time in that order to at least have your questions answered. Then the next person, Mr. MacGregor, did not have any questions, so we moved through what this committee agreed was going to be the questioning order. That is what happened.

[Larry Maguire, Conservative, Brandon—Souris, MB]

Madam Chair, if I could speak to that same issue, I have no problem with that. The fact that you gave us seven and a half minutes is fine. Then we were done that round of questions. Even if no one else had any other questions, obviously, I wasn't finished. I never got an answer to the question I asked because we were cut off in that time frame. I could have had another 20 minutes. There were 20 minutes left of this committee's work. If no one else had 20 minutes of questions, I certainly did. We were cut off. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Maguire, you are on this committee. You know the committee has agreed that for every witness we have two rounds, a seven-minute round and a five-minute round.

We did have a seven-minute round, and we then had a five-minute round. As I said before, I allowed you and Mr. Waugh to have seven minutes instead of five. You were given an extra two minutes and thirty seconds. Those are the two rounds.

There are no further rounds when we have witnesses. There was no discussion as to whether we should have further rounds. It was always two rounds. This is what we agreed to on the very first day this committee was constituted.

Being that there were no other witnesses, we then moved on.

By the way, I want to suggest that we have a clause-by-clause consideration on the floor, and—

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Yes, Mr. Van Loan.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

It has come to my attention that some information provided to the committee previously by the clerk was not accurate. The clerk has let us know that the member for Nunavut was not provided with notice. At the time he was provided with notice, he was not an independent; however, at the time of the order of reference, he was indeed an independent. As such, we cannot proceed at this time until 48 hours have passed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Mr. Vandal.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

Is that your ruling, Mr. Van Loan?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

I'm informing you of the rules of Parliament. I know for the Liberals on that side, it's rather casual. The rules of what we've adopted and so on seem to be things just to be trampled if we wanted to get something through. However, Madam Dabrusin moved such a rule. We adopted it. We are bound by it.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

That's your ruling?

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

I come from a tradition where we follow the rules.

[Dan Vandal, Liberal, Saint Boniface—Saint Vital, MB]

That's your ruling.

[Peter Van Loan, Conservative, York—Simcoe, ON]

I come from a tradition where the rules are what makes democracy work. They are what protects the rights of minorities. They are what allows people to be heard. We have been trampling them at every instance here, and now we have another example where that's being proposed to happen.

[Seamus O'Regan, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Madam Chair, can we do clause-by-clause consideration, please?

[The Chair, Liberal, Hedy Fry]

Excuse me. I would like to respond to the question on the honourable member for Nunavut.

As you well know, the honourable member for Nunavut became an independent only a short time ago. He still has an opportunity before report stage to submit in writing anything he wishes to say.