Environment Committee on May 22nd, 2018

Evidence of meeting #114 for Environment and Sustainable Development in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was see.

A recording is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

Bill C-69

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Olivier Champagne Legislative Clerk, House of Commons

Jean-Sébastien Rochon Counsel, Department of Justice

Christine Loth-Bown Vice-President, Policy Development Sector, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

Brent Parker Director, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs Division, Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency

Jeff Labonté Assistant Deputy Minister, Major Projects Management Office, Department of Natural Resources

Terence Hubbard Director General, Petroleum Resources Branch, Department of Natural Resources

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

The point of privilege, you said it was a mistake.

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

No, I've ruled it's over.

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

You ruled what was over?

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

There is no question of privilege. I've made a decision—

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

You said that you made a mistake.

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Yes, by asking the committee to vote. He implied that I then implied there was a point of privilege, which there was not, and I never accepted that there was.

May 22nd, 2018 / 9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

We were debating the point of privilege for about 10 minutes—

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Ed, do I need to suspend?

9:45 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

Yes, go ahead. You have every power you want.

9:45 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

I'm going to suspend—for five minutes.

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

We're going to resume.

Because we haven't had a question of privilege in committee before, I'm going to read this out so everybody knows what I'm doing and why.

The Chair of a committee does not have the power to rule on questions of privilege; only the Speaker has that power. If a Member wishes to raise a question of privilege during a committee meeting or an incident arises in connection with the committee’s proceedings that may constitute a breach of privilege, the committee Chair allows the Member to explain the situation. The Chair then determines whether the question raised in fact relates to parliamentary privilege. If the Chair determines that the question does relate to parliamentary privilege, the committee may then consider presenting a report on the question to the House.

I allowed the member to explain his position on his privilege that was being impacted, and I am not accepting that.

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

Based on what?

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Based on the fact that it was a motion that the committee moved in March on how to proceed. I've asked all the members of this committee numerous times to spend more time on this particular bill so that we could have more time to discuss it, and we did that way back. I have been asking this all along. We have been studying this bill now for almost three months.

9:50 p.m.

Conservative

Ed Fast Conservative Abbotsford, BC

It was way too short.

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

I'm saying that I've asked and been denied that opportunity to add hours, start earlier, add days, so I am not accepting that privilege has been denied, and we're going to move on.

9:50 p.m.

An hon. member

[Inaudible--Editor]

9:50 p.m.

Liberal

The Chair Liberal Deb Schulte

Sorry, there's no motion. We're moving on. I've made the determination.

9:50 p.m.

Liberal