Environment Committee on May 7th, 2008

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

I don't believe that.

I'm not suggesting we do the clause-by-clause on Wednesday; I'm suggesting we have the amendments submitted.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

But I believe Mr. Godfrey is suggesting that.

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

There is a compromise here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Okay.

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

Quite simply, the act of submitting amendments does not mean they have to be finally presented, because often in the course of discovering what other amendments are like, we decide it's repetitious or that this one looks better.

If parties have been submitting amendments already, and have had them drafted, it is my understanding that the Conservatives actually do have amendments ready to go. The advantage of sharing those--understanding that, of course, right up to the last minute they can be withdrawn or whatever--is that this will allow us to do some preliminary discussions.

I have shared every amendment we have put forward, by the way, with everybody, and we have received them back.

That would then mean that we would get the bulk of the work out of the way before the weekend, which makes it easier. We leave ourselves open to the possibility of putting further amendments in, based on what we hear on Monday afternoon, and it will still allow us to proceed Wednesday with the clause-by-clause, if we're willing to extend until we finish the job.

This process, if we undertake it in the right manner and with the right spirit, will allow us to get a lot of the problems out of the way because we'll be able to see what the amendments are and do some negotiating before we actually get to clause-by-clause. I would hope that it would be in that spirit, leaving the possibility open, of course, for amendments, but establishing a deadline. So basically we do it--

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Yes, we do have to have a deadline—

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

Of course.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

—just to get the whole thing looked at legally and so on.

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

But if we have an understanding of early submissions, I think we can proceed in good faith.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Jean.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

It sounds as if something's being rushed here for some reason, and I'm not sure why. And I apologize; I know I'm a visitor here, but I like to visit often.

How are the legislative officers going to decide whether or not these amendments are going to be in order if they don't have time to go through them?

Mr. Godfrey, I would be interested to find out how many amendments the official opposition have. From my experience with the Bloc on this committee, I know they'll double whatever you have, and the NDP will probably triple that. How many amendments are you looking at to put forward at this stage?

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

I think we've put forward roughly in the neighbourhood of ten amendments, most of which address problems raised by the government, frankly. We also gave an early indication of that by presenting the bill and what the amendments would look like.

We're not even fighting the government on these things; we're agreeing with much of what they're saying.

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

No, I'm not saying that, Mr. Godfrey.

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

So what I'm saying is there are about two major amendments for the Bloc. The NDP has hardly any. We've submitted ours.

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

Nathan, how many amendments do you have from the corner?

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

Do you have many amendments?

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

Because Mr. Godfrey has taken this approach of passing the amendments around, we don't have a great deal to do of great substance. I'm just checking with my staff now. We're looking at something about consequences, in terms of failure, that I've raised a number of times at committee.

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

So that's about one.

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

We're not talking a dozen, we're talking fewer than five, maybe a few.

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

But which might be submitted before Monday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Jean, if you want to finish your thought and then....

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

I know this committee works well together, and you try to work together to come to a solid purpose, but I didn't hear, Mr. Bigras, exactly how many amendments you have. I heard two from you, Mr. Godfrey, but knowing the Bloc and how much you study legislation, I would be very surprised if there were only two.

Is that the case, Mr. Bigras?

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

At clause-by-clause consideration, we might face the same problem we had when we heard from our witnesses, that is that we have the bill but, at the same time, Mr. Godfrey has put forward a proposal. The question is, how can we make sure that, once we've completed our consideration, the bill reflects as accurately as possible the objectives of committee members? We are currently assessing Mr. Godfrey's proposals. We are analyzing them, working together, and given our discussions, we will most likely be submitting amendments. For the time being, I cannot tell you how many amendments there will be, but there will be a few, not necessarily a whole lot, but a few major ones.

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

The idea remains that we share the amendments amongst ourselves as early as possible so that there are no surprises.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Mills]

Mr. Jean, do you want to finish, and then I'll go to Mr. Warawa?