Evidence of meeting #70 for Finance in the 40th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was hst.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
That's good. It will take me another hour to explain it to the Liberals.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
We'll see if we can reduce the noise, but I'll ask you to continue.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
The noise is pleasant compared with what we're hearing.
Liberal
Massimo Pacetti Liberal Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, QC
Mr. Chair, perhaps we can take a recess for 45 minutes and come back to see if we can get the noise reduced at that point.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
We're not going to take a recess for 45 minutes.
Can I ask somebody on the Liberal side to see if they can get the noise reduced?
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
I don't think they'll want to reduce the noise. They're having a good time. It's Christmas.
Conservative
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
Mr. Chair, I'm making this a question of the privilege of this committee. We are working tonight. This is the finance committee of the Parliament of Canada. We can't work with what's going on out there. I would ask you to use your authority to ensure we're able to do our work as parliamentarians, which is what we're paid to do.
If some people in the Liberal Party are having a party out there, that's their business. We have work to do. This is a major tax grab of billions of dollars on the backs of hard-working Canadians. If the Liberals are taking their usual “let them eat cake” approach, that's a shame, but we want to do our jobs and we want to be able to do them properly.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Hold on, I think there's a fair point being made. I will ask someone on the Liberal side to ask them to keep their noise down.
Mr. McCallum.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
Mr. Chair, I don't think any of us in this room are having the slightest trouble hearing Mr. Mulcair.
Liberal
John McCallum Liberal Markham—Unionville, ON
I can hear every word he says, and I think we all can. I don't really see what the issue is.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
Mr. Mulcair has asked...and I think it's a fair point actually. That is disruptive to the committee, frankly. This is a committee of the Parliament of Canada. This is a committee that is studying the HST bill.
I'm asking, again, whether there is somebody on the Liberal side who would request that they keep it down for an hour. We have an hour left at this committee.
December 8th, 2009 / 8:40 p.m.
Liberal
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
Someone just checked and apparently they're going to try to redirect the speaker so that it's not so loud.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative James Rajotte
They're going to redirect the speaker, so it will not be as loud in the committee room.
NDP
Thomas Mulcair NDP Outremont, QC
If they can do something of that nature....
We tend to forget. Unless I'm mistaken, I believe that—
