Environment Committee on Dec. 1st, 2010

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I'll bring this meeting to order. It's meeting number 39, and we're continuing with our committee business.

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

Chair, is it appropriate for me to move my motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Yes.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

All I'm going to do is read it into the record and call for the vote. I move:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 97.1(1), and after concluding hearings, the Committee recommends that the House of Commons do not proceed further with Bill C-469, an act to establish a Canadian Bill of Rights, because the Bill: will enable any resident of Canada to challenge any regulatory standard, at any time, thereby trumping the existing regulatory process, creating regulatory and investment unpredictability; will encroach on areas of provincial environmental jurisdiction; does not allow for the balance of the Social, Economic and Environmental pillars of Sustainable Development; overlaps with aspects of existing Federal legislation and policies which give rise to redundancy or conflict; removes numerous safeguards which ensure that environmental rights do not overwhelm government capacity and judicial resources.

My hope is that we move right to the vote and that we have a recorded vote.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Mr. Chair, I didn't hear the last part of what he said. There was a lot happening at this end.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Mr. Warawa wants to have a vote on this, but I do see hands flying.

Ms. Duncan, I saw you--

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

That's fine. If she couldn't hear what I said.... We have no intent to put up speakers; we'd like to go right to a vote and get this over. And I asked for a recorded vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I do have a speakers list going. I have Ms. Duncan--

Point of order, Monsieur Ouellet.

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Or it's just a point of information.

I thought we could not vote while there were still names left on the speakers list. It seems to me some names remained on that list the other night. So we cannot vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

That's what I said. I have people on the speakers list.

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

We cannot vote for as long as names remain on the list.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

There's no vote. We have to go to the speakers list.

[Christian Ouellet, Bloc, Brome—Missisquoi, QC]

Fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

I have Ms. Duncan, Mr. Woodworth, Mr. Scarpaleggia, and then Monsieur Ouellet. Ms. Murray...?

Ms. Duncan, you have the floor.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So the motion, as I understand it, is that Mr. Warawa wants to reopen these hearings?

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley, BC]

No, to put it aside.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

The motion Mr. Warawa has put on the floor at every meeting for the last three meetings now is that the committee recommend to the House that it does not proceed further with Bill C-469.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm confused, because--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

When we finished the last meeting we were debating Mr. Calkins' motion, which was tabled--

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Right.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

--and which was that we continue hearings.

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

So how do we all of a sudden take another motion on the floor when we haven't voted on the motion that's already on the floor?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

Because at the end of every meeting--

[Linda Duncan, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

You start--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Bezan]

--we start fresh.