Evidence of meeting #132 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 million.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:40 p.m.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
You're ruling that this is not a point of order. You're ruling that this is debate. Is that what I'm hearing?
4:40 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
I'm consulting with the person I consult with on these issues.
I will recognize you on the point of order. It has to be related to procedure.
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, I can't hear you. That's twice I haven't been able to hear the interpretation.
4:40 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Is there an issue with the translation?
4:40 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Okay, I hear it now. I want to make sure I understand what's going on.
4:40 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
We have a comment on the point of order, so it has to be tied to procedure. I will hear it.
4:40 p.m.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
Thank you, Chair.
Having been in committees for 14 and a half years, and I was also the chair of the Standing Committee on the Environment. I do have a bit of experience on this. The tradition is that the minister would come for the budget. Tradition is that the minister would come for supplementary estimates. What Mr. Lake is bringing forward is a request that at any time we would make ourselves available on this side.
The other point I would like to make on this is that, Chair, you said it was based on the information you received from the clerk, that this has to be dealt with before the last opposition day. It's the government that decides when the opposition day is given, so it's the government's call when that day would be. This floating date is the government's call, but it cannot go later than December 10. Today, being the 20th, we have time for the minister to come.
That's the tradition of this institution, that we would have the minister come. If she's come many times before, that's nice, but we have new members on the committee—me being one of them. I have not seen the minister at the committee. I think tradition should be respected as well as transparency on budgets and supplementary estimates. I would also make myself available for when the minister can come, and when it's convenient for her.
4:40 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
Thank you.
Mr. Stetski, when you had your hand up, did you have a point of order?
4:45 p.m.
Kootenay—Columbia, NDP
I'm just wondering why we're keeping the witnesses here through this discussion.
4:45 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
We can let the witnesses go.
I thought that if we were moving into the vote, you might want to see if we approved your money. That's very exciting. You're welcome to stay until we go in camera, but if you want to leave, you're welcome to do that. Thank you so much for joining us today.
We don't have any more points of order on the floor. At this point, we will proceed to the votes.
4:45 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I have a point of order again.
Do we get a chance to debate the individual votes, or is it just straight-up votes?
4:45 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
The three actions that can be done with these votes are that—and we'll go through the questions, “Shall vote number 1a, under Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency, carry?”—they can be adopted, negatived or reduced. We cannot increase through the vote. The call for the vote will be, “Shall it carry?”
4:45 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I have another point of order, then.
I want to get an understanding of how this invitation went out to the minister. What options were given? How would we even deal with that if we don't agree with that? Do we get to this point and vote right now, with no discussion about this?
4:45 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
The procedure is that we would vote on the three, because we've heard from these departments. We have not concluded the discussion because we still have the Parks Canada supplementary estimates (A) next week to deal with. There's still an opportunity to have this discussion. We can go back to the minister with the....
I haven't heard agreement about whether others are open to meeting outside of the scheduled time. We had heard, under other studies, that there wasn't that agreement. I had assumed that we were working within the Tuesday and Thursday 3:30 to 5:30 slots. That was the invitation we sent to the minister.
4:45 p.m.
Edmonton—Wetaskiwin, CPC
I would like to understand. Can I move a motion now, then? I cannot move a motion.
Just for clarity, that decision has been made. Is there any discussion of having the minister appear and creating more options? You're asking us right now to vote on this, without having heard the minister, and potentially to have the minister come after we've already voted on her supplementary estimates—this portion of her supplementary estimates. That doesn't make any sense to me at all.
4:45 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
The suggestion that I am being offered by the clerk is that we still have a bit of time. We can deal with this next week. We can go in camera, deal with the piece of business we have on the agenda and perhaps figure out what sides want to put forward, as far as what we'll consider in the next week.
Is there a point of order?
4:45 p.m.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
No. I'm speaking to the same point of order we are discussing.
4:45 p.m.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
That was going to be my suggestion, that the third option was that we do not have to vote on this today. We can wait. Then we can deal with all of them at the same time: “Shall this carry? Shall this carry?”
4:45 p.m.
Mr. John Aldag (Cloverdale—Langley City, Lib.)
We can suspend today. Like I say, that gives us.... We still have Parks coming next Tuesday, so we can—
4:45 p.m.
Langley—Aldergrove, CPC
We have until then to vote. If we do not vote in support of this, it is deemed carried and goes on to the House. That is an additional option. If there was hanky panky and we wanted to go on and on, it's still going to pass.