Information & Ethics Committee on Oct. 29th, 2024

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

No, I'll get on the list.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

I'm sorry, Chair. Are we still on the amendment?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

No. Mr. Villemure has proposed a subamendment to add a witness to the list.

Again, I think that's a reasonable request. André Lareau is from Université Laval. He's a tax expert, I assume, as a tax professor.

I don't see any objection to the subamendment. I will assume that we have consensus on the subamendment. Is that correct?

(Subamendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Okay. That takes care of that.

We are now on the amendment as amended with the addition of Mr. André Lareau.

Mr. Caputo, your hand was up on the amendment. Go ahead, sir.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

Thank you to all for indulging my tardiness. I was speaking in the House.

I apologize if this was addressed as I was sitting down. It's in reference to the breaches between 2020 and 2023. I am curious about “have gone unreported” and “the loss of millions of dollars”. I mean, to me that seems fairly trite. I'm not sure why we need to have an amendment to address it.

In terms of the witnesses, they all sound fine to me. I believe Mr. Villemure just proposed another witness. I've always known him to be fairly straightforward. I trust that the person he's putting forward will be an expert of assistance to us. Hopefully, we can come to a consensus.

I apologize again if these issues have already been addressed. I just wanted to make sure those things were addressed.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

To be frank, if we strike “have gone unreported and resulted in the loss of millions of dollars”, I have no doubt that during the course of this testimony the information will come up.

[An hon. member]

Exactly.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

One of the challenges when you deal with motions is that sometimes there's too much information in the motion. During the course of the testimony, I'm sure the issue of the loss of millions of dollars will be asked about, and it will be answered just how much it is.

I appreciate that, Mr. Caputo.

We are on the amendment as amended. I don't see any other discussion on this. Do we have consensus on the amendment?

(Amendment as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Okay. We've done that.

Now for the last part, we're on the main motion as amended twice.

I don't see any further discussion on that.

Do we have consensus on the motion as amended?

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Just one moment, please, Mr. Chair.

I see that Mr. Barrett isn't here. I just wanted to ensure that we could get his input.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We're in the process of debating this. I have quorum, so I'm going to continue.

We're on the main motion as amended twice.

[Frank Caputo, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Can we have a recorded vote, please?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

We'll have a recorded division on the main motion as amended twice.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

I want to update the committee in terms of scheduling. On the 4th, we have the Information Commissioner and the Commissioner of Lobbying scheduled to come before us to answer questions about their reappointment. It's a statutory requirement, I believe. That's why we're having them here on the 4th. We will try to get witnesses here on November 6 to commence this study. I'll leave it to the clerk and the analyst to attempt to do that.

Mr. Barrett, you have the floor, sir.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

Can I ask for a brief suspension, Mr. Chair, to expedite the proceedings?

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay.

Mr. Barrett has asked for a suspension, and I'm going to grant that.

We are suspended.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Welcome back, everyone.

When we last left our heroes, Mr. Barrett had the floor.

Mr. Barrett, you have the floor.

[Michael Barrett, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville—Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, ON]

I yield the floor back, thanks.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Okay, thank you.

Ms. Khalid, go ahead, please.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair.

Over the course of the year, we had spent a significant amount of time studying social media and its impacts on Canadians. We had gotten to the point where a draft report was drafted. I would like to move that we resume the study, basically to complete the report and to table it in the House.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

That motion was put on notice. Every member should have received that.

The motion has been moved by Ms. Khalid. Is there any discussion on the motion?

Ms. Khalid, the analyst does have a question on the motion.

Go ahead.

[Alexandra Savoie, Committee Researcher]

As you will recall, we had actually started the consideration. I just wanted to ask if you wanted a V2 with some of the changes that were already made to be distributed as part of it.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Yes, please. I think we should have a V2, just so that everybody can have a refresher as to where we're at with the study. That would be great.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

Fair enough.

Thank you for asking that question.

Go ahead, Ms. Khalid.

[Iqra Khalid, Liberal, Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have another motion to move once we've dealt with this one, if that's okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, John Brassard]

On this particular motion, do we have consensus?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Okay. I see that we do.

Go ahead, Ms. Khalid. You still have the floor.