Electoral Reform Committee on June 21st, 2016

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Danielle Widmer]

Good afternoon, honourable members of the committee. I see a quorum.

I must inform members that the clerks of the committee can receive motions only for the election of the chair. The clerks cannot receive other types of motions, cannot entertain points of order, and cannot participate in debate.

We can now proceed to the election of the chair.

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, the chair must be a member of the government party and must be elected by secret ballot.

I am ready to receive motions for the chair.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I'd like to move that Francis Scarpaleggia be chair for this committee, please.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Ms. Sahota that Francis Scarpaleggia be elected as chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, each candidate is invited to address the committee for a maximum of three minutes.

I now invite Mr. Scarpaleggia to take the floor for a maximum of three minutes.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

I would like to thank the clerk.

I would like to thank Ms. Sahota for nominating me as chair.

For those who don't know me yet, I want to make it clear that I'm not a very partisan person. When chairing a committee, all members, regardless of their level of partisanship, their party, or their biases, feel a strong sense of responsibility toward their colleagues. The chair wants them to see that the committee's affairs are being run properly.

My priority is to be the best chair possible. I want the committee to achieve a sense of balance by encouraging members to be polite and respectful toward each other. The Canadians following the committee's work will want to see on the news that their country is generally well run and that respect is the norm in politics.

They will also want to see a certain level of bilingualism. I will therefore try my best to ensure a balance between the official languages. I think it's very important if we want to maintain the respect of Canadians and if we want our work to reflect who they are.

Canada is a nation of peace, order, and good government. I think the objective is for that spirit to infuse the work of the committee. I will do my best to chair in the manner of Mr. Reid when he chaired the subcommittee on human rights. I will try to be rigorous but also very respectful.

At the end of the day, whatever the outcome of the report, I think that all of us, as MPs, want to feel proud of the process and proud of the product.

I have no biases or firm opinion regarding the type of electoral system we should have in Canada. I am here to listen and not to influence people.

Last but not least, I think my biggest qualification to be chair is that I haven't made any summer vacation plans. Thank you.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to the motion adopted on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, the chair must be elected by secret ballot. Before proceeding, I must very briefly explain the process.

My colleague, who is a procedural clerk at the House of Commons, will distribute a ballot to each member of the committee.

You have to clearly indicate your choice by printing the first and last names of the candidate in block letters on the ballot and depositing it in the box. We will then count the votes and announce the name of the successful candidate. If a candidate does not receive a majority of the votes, another ballot will have to be conducted in the same manner.

I declare Mr. Scarpaleggia to have received a majority of the votes and is duly elected chair of the committee.

I invite Mr. Scarpaleggia to take the chair.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I want to thank my colleagues for their support.

We can now proceed with the election of the two vice-chairs of the committee. Ms. Widmer can proceed with the election.

Are there any motions?

Mr. Deltell, go ahead.

[Gérard Deltell, Conservative, Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC]

Mr. Chair, I move that Scott Reid be elected vice-chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

It has been moved that Scott Reid be elected vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, each candidate is invited to address the committee for a maximum of three minutes.

I now invite Mr. Scott Reid to take the floor for a maximum of three minutes.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Very quickly, colleagues, this gives me a chance to discuss my own background with the electoral reform issue.

Going back some 20 years, I served on the Reform Party's task force on electoral reform back in the late 1990s as staff help. I've written a number of papers on the subject. Back in 2004, I was a member of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs when it reviewed the issue of electoral reform. I think I am the last surviving member of that particular set of hearings. Hopefully I'll bring some experience but not too much presupposition as to where we're trying to go.

With that, I'll conclude, except to say thank you to our chair.

Thank you to our chair, Mr. Scarpaleggia, for his very kind words about my experience as chair of the Subcommittee on International Human Rights. The position was held before me by my colleague, Mr. Kenney. With the help of members from all the parties, he determined the principles of consensus that guided the subcommittee and that I hope will guide this committee.

Thank you.

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, the first vice-chair must be elected by secret ballot.

[Jason Kenney, Conservative, Calgary Midnapore, AB]

Mr. Chair, insofar as there's been an acclamation, I would like to move that we dispense with the secret ballot.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

It looks as though there is consensus around that.

(Motion agreed to)

Congratulations, Mr. Reid.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, the second vice-chair must be a member from the New Democratic Party and must be elected by secret ballot.

I am ready to receive motions for the position of second vice-chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

I think Mr. Boulerice would like to nominate someone.

Go ahead.

[Alexandre Boulerice, NDP, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I am pleased to nominate my colleague and friend, Nathan Cullen.

[The Clerk]

Are there any further motions?

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Tuesday, June 7, 2016, each candidate is invited to address the committee for a maximum of three minutes.

I now invite Mr. Cullen to take the floor for a maximum of three minutes.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Boulerice, for nominating me.

I want to thank our new chair and commend him for his work and experience.

I also want to congratulate Mr. Reid and commend him for his experience.

I will also attempt to be very brief, as brief as politicians are able to be in our role.

I very much look forward to this conversation with my colleagues. I can easily determine by the quality of the people around this table that each of our respective parties takes this issue of democratic reform extremely seriously. I look forward to working with colleagues I've long known and some colleagues I'm just getting to know.

Similar to Mr. Reid's case, my party, though not I, certainly has a long history on this issue. We were going back through some editions of Hansard, and for even longer than 40 years, people like Ed Broadbent and other New Democrats have been talking about electoral reform. We feel that sense of history and shared responsibility, and I also see it reflected in the nature and composition of this committee, the likes of which I don't believe Parliament has ever seen before.

We appreciate that this is the form selected by the government for this important and historic conversation. Not only in the form but also in the outcome and in the process that we choose, we hope to always be thinking of Canadians first and thinking of what is best for their democracy, for our democracy. We hope that this committee will instruct us to do that. No one party, no one political aspirant, can have it one way. It is going to require our best to work together to come out with the best outcome.

With that, Mr. Chair, I look forward to working with you, and to the conversations today and to those to come.

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Likewise.

[The Clerk]

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Cullen duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Liberal, Francis Scarpaleggia]

Before proceeding with the adoption of certain routine motions, I want to know whether you agree with the meeting being televised.