Finance Committee on Sept. 29th, 2011

[Shelly Glover, Conservative, Saint Boniface, MB]

Pardon me?

A point of order—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Brison, that is out of order—and you know it's out of order.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

I should have said “misinformed” or “intentionally dishonest”.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Brison, that is out of order and you know it's out of order. You've been a member of Parliament since 1997 and you know that's out of order.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, Kings—Hants, NS]

[Inaudible--Editor]...partisan and not constructive--

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I have the floor, Mr. Brison. You know that's out of order. You know that as well as I do.

Okay, we're going to go to a vote on the amendment.

(Amendment negatived)

Now, on the motion, I have Mr. Albas and Mr. Marston.

Mr. Albas, do you want to speak to the motion?

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Okanagan—Coquihalla, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Actually, I am going to heed your comments earlier about keeping the time down. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

Mr. Marston.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I'll pass.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Giguère.

[Alain Giguère, NDP, Marc-Aurèle-Fortin, QC]

I just have a simple comment. The amendment, in and of itself, was not all that bad. We are asking a mandate of someone. If we really want him to meet the deadlines, he should have the resources he needs. It would not be pleasant to have the Parliamentary Budget Officer come and tell us that he cannot respond to our requests because he lacks the resources. And that is very likely to happen.

Mr. Hoback, you, yourself, could amend your motion to guarantee that that never happens. You, yourself, would need to guarantee us, through a friendly amendment to your resolution, that the Parliamentary Budget Officer could always respond to questions that, for goodness sake, are extremely relevant.

It would be highly beneficial if he could indeed provide us with accurate figures. Not only is the principle behind your motion completely reasonable, but it is also desirable, so much so that we genuinely want to see this work done—and done well.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I have Mr. Marston.

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

I have just a very quick comment.

One of the things I think we're struggling with here is, what would the impact be on the PBO? We really don't know that. In all honesty, I think your motion is coming in good faith; our amendment was as well. But I would caution that maybe we should ask the PBO for their response to this motion as to what impact it would have. I don't want us to go down a road that creates more of a problem than it is helpful for the PBO and to Parliament.

Why don't we hold this over to the next meeting and invite a representative from the PBO to inform us properly? Nothing is worse than functioning partially in the dark.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I have Monsieur Mai.

[Hoang Mai, NDP, Brossard—La Prairie, QC]

It was more a technical issue and maybe a question. Is it possible to defer this motion until we maybe get information from the PBO, so that we know we can...? Again, we agree with Mr. Hoback's motion and the intent is really there. We all want to know the cost; we just want to make sure it's possible to get it.

Is it possible to defer?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

We're dealing with the motion now. We have to deal with the motion. The committee, unanimously, can decide to deal with something at a later date, but we are dealing with the motion now. We have to do so.

I just want to come back to a question because I did stop Mr. Jean from moving his amendment. Is there agreement of the committee to deal with the second motion from Mr. Hoback today?

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

[Inaudible--Editor]...or separately?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Well, either/or, because my understanding is that Mr. Jean won't move the amendment if there is agreement to deal with both motions.

Is that correct, Mr. Jean?

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Absolutely, there's no sense in wasting time, Mr. Chair, but it is the same issue and identical in nature. I think we have pretty much—

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Do I have agreement to deal with both today?

[Wayne Marston, NDP, Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, ON]

We have no problem with the second one at all. It's just the concerns we've expressed so far.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

I have Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Call the vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay, the vote is on the motion from Mr. Hoback.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I know you called for the vote, but there's uncertainty in relation to.... I thought we had agreement to include the second motion within the first.