Environment Committee on Nov. 24th, 2010

[Gerard Kennedy, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Chair, if I may, I'll simply say that I don't meant to impugn the motives of the member opposite. I thought it was a fair question to the chair about the provisions for speaking long.

I don't take...and I'm taking this from my experience in the provincial house, that filibustering is allowed, in fact, under many things. You're telling me, too, that speaking to a motion here, there is no time limit, and that's essentially the inquiry that I made.

I want to unreservedly say that I draw no reference to impugning the member's motives or his intentions in speaking. The characterization I made was merely a technical one about what the committee's limits were, and I learned there were none.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I simply do not accept that, unless of course my friend, who I think knows better, does not understand the meaning of the word filibuster.

As I understand the meaning of the word filibuster, it is a reference to someone speaking just for the sake of speaking, to fill in time. I clearly heard him accuse me of doing that. That is not my intention, and this does impugn my motives.

I do not accept his comments, and I ask the chair to rule.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Essentially, if Mr. Woodworth had been talking for two hours already, I might agree with you. But he hasn't. He has only had the floor for about ten minutes, and he has been going quite systematically through the motion and presenting testimony.

I would ask that you retract the statement. If you want to talk about time limits and whether or not the committee has a time limit in place, I'd ask that this be the question, and without accusing the member of being in a filibuster.

[Gerard Kennedy, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm in your hands. If you believe it impugns his motives, on those grounds—because on no other grounds would I withdraw—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I'm going to side with Mr. Woodworth on this. I would just ask that you withdraw the statement.

[Gerard Kennedy, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I will happily stay within parliamentary bounds. I unreservedly withdraw the comment. I appreciate your answer, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Thank you.

And then I'll—

[Gerard Kennedy, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

We are in your hands, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

We don't have any standing orders or any routine motions limiting debate, but it doesn't prevent committee from adopting one in consideration of any motion or bill.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Bezan, I have a point of order, which I did not raise previously--until this discussion.

At the very beginning of Mr. Woodworth's comments, he specifically impugned a poor motive on my behalf in defining a particular provision in my bill. I found it very offensive.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

I'll retract it. I apologize.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

The retraction and apology are accepted.

Moving on, let's resume, Mr. Woodworth.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you.

I confess that I was reading between the lines, based on what I know of Ms. Duncan's experience and expertise in this matter. If she indicates that the omission of those words was not intentional, I certainly cannot challenge that, and I apologize to her if, by suggesting it, I offended her; it was not my intent.

I'm sorry, I did not intend it in an offensive way; I simply assumed that in fact it was a conscious decision on your part.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Apology accepted.

[Stephen Woodworth, Conservative, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Thank you.

In any event, the point I was about to move to flows from the first point of Mr. Warawa's motion, and that is that the bill will enable any resident of Canada to challenge any regulatory standard at any time, thereby trumping the existing regulatory process and creating regulatory and investment unpredictability.

In fact, I think it would be a fair characterization to say that almost all, if not all, of the industry representatives—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I have to interrupt you, Mr. Woodworth. The bells are ringing. It is our scheduled vote.

With that, it is my duty to adjourn the meeting. We'll continue on at a later date.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

On this motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

On this motion. We'll come back on the motion.

We are adjourned.