Information & Ethics Committee on Oct. 24th, 2013

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Chad Mariage]

Honourable members, I see a quorum.

First of all, welcome back to the new session.

For those who don't know me, my name is Chad Mariage. I'm the clerk of the committee.

I am joined by Jean-Michel Roy, another committee clerk who will be assisting me today.

I must inform members that the clerk of the committee, for the purposes of today's meeting, can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive any other types of motions, points of order, or anything like that, only motions to elect the chair.

That said, we can now proceed to the election of the chair, pursuant to Standing Order 106(2). The chair must be a member of the official opposition. I'm ready to receive motions to that effect.

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I nominate Pat Martin.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Calandra has moved that Mr. Pat Martin be elected chair of the committee.

Are there any other motions?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Martin the duly elected chair of the committee.

Before I invite Mr. Martin to take his seat, I would seek the indulgence of the committee for consent to proceed with the election of the vice-chairs.

Pursuant to the same standing order, the first vice-chair must be a member of the government party. I'm ready to receive a motion to that effect.

Mr. Martin.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

I'd like to nominate Pat Davidson, please.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Martin moves that Ms. Patricia Davidson be elected first vice-chair.

Are there any other motions?

Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Ms. Davidson duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Pursuant to the same standing order, the second vice-chair must be a member of the opposition, but not the official opposition.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

That sort of narrows it down.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Clerk]

I am prepared to receive a motion to that effect. Mr. Carmichael.

[John Carmichael, Conservative, Don Valley West, ON]

I'd like to nominate Scott Andrews.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Carmichael moves that Mr. Andrews be elected second vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any other motions? I see none.

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Andrews the duly elected second vice-chair.

I now invite Mr. Martin to take the chair.

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

Thank you, Chad, and thanks to my nominator, Paul.

Good morning, committee members.

As the newly elected chair of the ethics committee, I hope and I know that we can look forward to a congenial atmosphere and relationship.

Pat, I'm pleased to be working with you. We might have made history here. This might be the first committee ever chaired and vice-chaired by people named Pat, you see, and I think that's worth noting. Surely nothing can go wrong now.

I don't know what the will of the committee is, but I would be willing to entertain any input from either side about how we might want to spend the rest of the day. Obviously, the first thing we have to do when we do get going is the routine motions to establish the order of how we'll conduct ourselves. That doesn't usually take very long. I suppose the next step after that would be to discuss future business and the types of studies we might want to undertake as a committee.

Chairing this committee is going to be interesting. I know that many of you are long-standing members of this committee, but I think it's the only standing committee that four different officers of Parliament report to, and four women, in fact. All four of them are female officers of Parliament. I know that some of them have already expressed an interest and are looking forward to making a report and presenting to the committee at the first opportunity. I'm sure we can discuss that.

What's the will of the committee? Some committees constitute themselves and simply adjourn; others do some business.

Paul.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Just for today, Mr. Chair, to give us an opportunity to speak in private and start working together to chart a course, could we entertain a motion to adjourn now? That would allow us to work towards—

[The Chair, NDP, Pat Martin]

A motion to adjourn is non-debatable. All those in favour?

(Motion agreed to)

We'll see you at the next call of the chair.

I suppose I should comment that the regularly scheduled meeting will be on Tuesday at the same time. We'll see you then.

Thank you. The meeting is adjourned.