Environment Committee on May 7th, 2008

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

You can always submit amendments, actually—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

The only part I have is the legal aspect of it, where they look at them and say this one conflicts with this one, etc., which is my guidance as to how we conduct clause-by-clause.

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

But that's independent of the witnesses appearing.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

You can't have amendments coming in through the process, because that will change some of the things we're doing. So I can see a problem there. I think we would have to have a deadline prior to starting the clause-by-clause, so whether it's five minutes before, you would have to have a deadline.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

But, Chairman, you can also introduce amendments to—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Yes, you can subamend.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Sure.

If we set a deadline of seven o'clock on Monday, you have the flexibility, still, of amending all you want when you get to clause-by-clause, if in fact the witnesses have changed things dramatically.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Through you, Chair, Mr. Bigras had suggested that we could make amendments after we have the deadline on the 12th, that we could still submit amendments afterwards. Did he mean subamendments or amendments?

If we can continue to submit amendments after the 12th, I can't see that happening.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Yes. I just cannot see us doing that once we start clause-by-clause. So the deadline certainly is 3:30 on Wednesday, if we start clause-by-clause at 3:30 on Wednesday.

You can't be accepting amendments through the process. That just will not work.

Mr. Bigras.

[Bernard Bigras, Bloc, Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie, QC]

I don't want to belabour this, because I am using up the time allocated to discuss my own motion—let's not forget that—but I would think that we could submit amendments even after having begun clause-by-clause consideration. That's a possibility. In my 11 years as a member in the House and on committees studying bills, I have come to understand how amendments are submitted. You might not be able to do so off the cuff, but it is possible to submit amendments, and we quite often receive new amendments from the various parties during clause-by-clause consideration of a bill.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Jean

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

This is exactly what happened on the transport committee, two bills ago. I can't even remember; I think it was Bill C-7. This is why it had to go back to the Senate and then took an additional three weeks to go back and forth, because we rushed through a piece of legislation. We got some conflicting legislation.

[John Godfrey, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

We're not rushing.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

We're not rushing? We're hearing witnesses on Monday, including a deputy, and then we're going to have the amendments proposed, in essence, before we even hear from them? You can say it's afterwards, but the reality is that it's not going to happen.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

We have the choice, of course.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I think I have the floor, Mr. Regan, with all due respect.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Sorry. I thought you were finished.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

No, I'm not.

First, of all, you're going to have all these amendments, and then you're going to have the legislative officer find out whether they're in order and then whether they conflict with each other. And you're going to do that all within an hour of hearing the witnesses? It just seems ludicrous. What's the rush?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Mr. Chairman, our problem today, obviously, is that we have a deadline today. It seems to me that we can get past that by having a deadline of Monday.

If on Monday we decide that's not going to be enough time, we have the option at that point of further extending it. So let's get past today, for now, get past the immediate problem—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

We need to change today to Monday or Tuesday—

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

—because clearly there is not agreement on Wednesday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

If Mr. Bigras is asking for a friendly amendment that we have the deadline changed, my motion was the 14th. If we make it the 12th—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

To be reviewed at—