Evidence of meeting #97 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was content.
A video is available from Parliament.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I'm trying to piece this together, Mr. Chair. I apologize. This is a table-drop with 10 minutes left to go in our meeting.
I would like to better understand what's before us here, because I'm just pulling up the stories now. Admittedly, Mr. Chair, I missed whatever revelations happened, so I have a couple of questions.
Is this being covered at the industry committee, the exact same study?
Conservative
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Okay.
Mr. Chair, I would say this. I think it's important to be on the record before any Conservative fundraising campaigns go up talking about a cover-up. This is a conversation that we had at this committee. Many of you will recall that it was the will of this committee to wait until further investigations happened prior to revisiting this.
I'm just going to say this, Mr. Chair. Part of the process that we've been witnessing as a tactic is to have every committee run parallel studies—six, seven, eight, nine, 10 meetings at a time—jamming up our studies. I know that Mr. Villemure has a study that is supposed to happen on our return.
I'm interested in this, Mr. Chair. I want to be on the record so that people can see quite clearly that if this whistle-blower has real merit to the things they're saying around a potential breach of our parliamentary privilege by having a minister, as the allegation says, allegedly lie to this committee, that is a significant thing. That is no small thing. I want to make sure that we give it the seriousness and attention that this type of allegation would require.
What I'm troubled with is that it's 6:30 p.m., 10 or 15 minutes after our meeting was supposed to be done, and we're now involved in a debate on this. I don't want to be rushed into a decision on this very serious allegation that's been made without having had the opportunity to review the materials as presented in the news or without having had the opportunity to hear any type of debate. I am uncomfortable voting on this motion.
Now, I'll just state this for the record: I will abstain from voting on this motion if it moves forward in its current form, as it is. I wanted to put that to the committee, because I'm not present there today. I'm not in the room. I can't have conversations with people, and I prefer to negotiate in an open and transparent way. That's where I stand on this.
Thank you.
Conservative
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
I really take the points that Mr. Green has made with respect to, first, the nature of how this motion is being introduced. It's being table-dropped, basically, at the end of a long day. We're trying to get through committee business and figure out what our schedule will be when we come back from the break.
Knowing and understanding how heavy a schedule we have—Mr. Villemure's study is coming up on January 29—we do need to give priority to things that we've already agreed to. I know that in the past we haven't exactly been doing that. I would like to set that precedent now. We agreed that Mr. Villemure's study will start on January 29. Let's get to it.
In the past, unfortunately, we have cancelled meetings where we could have had some of this work done. Now we're having to push it into the new year. For example, Chair, we have two excellent vice-chairs in Mr. Villemure and Ms. Fortier, to make sure that in the sad instance that you're unwell, the committee work still continues.
I really think that at this point, given that other committees—many, many of them—are studying the exact same issue, it would perhaps be prudent for us, while all of that work is going on, to start with the studies that we've already agreed to as a committee, that we've voted on and that we've said are the priorities of this committee.
I will leave it to my colleagues to see how they want to do this, but I really think that at this time, we should not let our agenda be hijacked. On things that we have already agreed to, let's stay true to our word, Chair.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Ms. Khalid.
I'm not seeing any other hands up or any debate on the motion by Mr. Barrett.
Do we have agreement on the motion?
No. We don't have agreement.
Madam Clerk, go ahead with the vote.
(Motion negatived: nays 6; yeas 3)
I will suspend for a couple of minutes while we go in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]