(Motion as amended agreed to)
Evidence of meeting #1 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #1 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Did everyone understand Mr. Menzies' motion?
Do you want to read it again, Mr. Menzies?
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
The motion is that in the case of previously scheduled meetings taking place outside of the parliamentary precinct, the committee members in attendance shall only be required to wait for 15 minutes following the designated start of the meeting before they may proceed to hear witnesses and receive evidence, regardless of whether opposition or government members are present.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
I'm not sure about the purpose of having to wait 15 minutes. When we travel with the pre-budget consultation we're on a pretty fixed schedule. A lot of times we have seven or eight witnesses for one panel, and 15 minutes may cause us to run late. Again, somebody is going to get penalized, and usually it is the witnesses.
Out of respect for the witnesses, I don't see the need. I think we work collegially. I don't see the point of waiting 15 minutes when it's not necessary. I think we should leave it as is.
When we travel we're not allowed to present motions. We're working out of respect for witnesses, not ourselves. If one of the members decides to be late, it's on the record. It's too bad, we start. We end up taking that 15 minutes away from witnesses is what I'm saying.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
Just to clarify, that's the outside limit. I would suggest we start on time. That's not the purpose of this, just to have it that we're not waiting for one of our members and holding up.... After a maximum of 15 minutes, the chair then moves on, preferably immediately. This is just to put a limit on how long we are obliged to wait for one member of this committee.
Conservative
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
If I understand your motion correctly, Ted, it is to mean that effectively outside of the parliamentary precinct, there is no quorum after 15 minutes. So if in fact two people showed up from one party, we'd start.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
And we've done that before in the last pre-budget consultations--
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Well, we may have done it before, but I want to clarify the motion. So if two Conservative members show up, it's automatically a committee meeting.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
Yes, with a maximum of 15 minutes waiting for anybody else, and then we hear the witnesses. They've gone out of their way. We're travelling. It's to make sure we don't have to sit for an hour waiting for one of us to show up.
February 3rd, 2009 / 9:25 a.m.
Liberal
John McKay Liberal Scarborough—Guildwood, ON
Yes, I understand, but the implications become a little silly if you play it out.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
There is no quorum when we travel, so how do we determine that we have to wait for somebody? I ask this because it's happened in the past, when we were expecting a member but we realized he had gone back to Ottawa. So we're going to be wasting 15 minutes waiting for somebody when he's not going to ever show up. I don't see the need to have that motion.
What is quorum? Is it dependent on how many people showed up the night before, or how many people were on the plane? We've had situations where people have come on the plane and then taken another plane and gone back to Ottawa, and we've not known how many people we were travelling with. And I've been at committees where there have been two people. Once you have the chair and somebody else, I think that's it, it's time to go. It's up to the members to be on time.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
I absolutely agree, but this gives the chair the right to continue, and if he chooses to wait the 15 minutes, then we actually have a bylaw, if you will, or a motion in place to give him the authority to proceed.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Here, he has to wait 15 minutes. The way you have your motion—sorry, Mr. Chair, but you have to wait 15 minutes. What I'm saying is to leave it up to the discretion of the chair. That's what you have a chairman for.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
The wording is, “shall only be required to wait for 15 minutes”.
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Well, one option I can suggest is perhaps you might want to negotiate with other parties or see whether there is support wording, and then bring the motion back. We can always adopt a motion at a future time, unless you want to have the vote today. But my suspicion is there may be some agreement, if you can negotiate off-line on this.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Okay. Is everyone okay with this motion on the distribution of documents? It's in both official languages?
(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative