Evidence of meeting #6 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
I am not necessarily talking about four hours in a row. We could split it into two meetings. The important thing is to have four hours in the weeks we meet.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay, so you are proposing that we do two extra meetings. Either your amendment is adding two hours onto the two meetings per month that Mr. Johns has proposed in his original motion or it's adding two more meetings at two hours each. That is your suggestion.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
That is exactly right.
We have four weeks when we were supposed to meet for two hours each week. That gives us a total of eight hours of meeting time.
Personally, I would add two hours each week, for a total of 16 hours. I did not specify the details in the motion, because it was spontaneous, but we could have four consecutive hours or two meetings of two hours.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Mr. Chair, I agree with Madam Gill. We should at least be able to commit, as committee members, to eight hours per month. That would be four two-hour meetings per month.
I would agree with an amendment to Mr. Johns' motion that the committee meet a minimum of four times per month for the months of July and August, as well as meet two times per week until the end of June.
The Clerk
Mr. Chair, if you want, we can maybe discuss this to make sure that we are on the same page.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay. We'll suspend for a moment.
Welcome back, everyone.
I just want to make sure everybody understands exactly what has taken place with the amendments.
From Madam Gill, basically the amendment is to increase from four hours a month to 16 hours a month, regardless of how we, as a committee, decide afterwards to do that, whether it's extended hours or extended days or extra days. No?
Madam Gill.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
The motion calls for a total of eight hours of meetings per month. Rather than holding two meetings per month of two hours, I propose that we hold two meetings per month of four hours, for a total of 16 hours for July and August.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Mr. Johns suggested two two-hour meetings per month, making four hours per month. I suggest two four-hour meetings per month, for a total of eight hours per month. We would therefore meet for a total of 16 hours in July and August. That is one eight-hour workday per month, if you count it in days.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay, this could be worked out either in two meetings at four hours or four meetings at two hours. Okay, so now we've understood.
We'll vote on the amendment first. The amendment would be that we do a total of eight hours for the month of July and eight hours for the month of August.
Nancy, would you record the vote, please.
Liberal
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
I just want to make sure we're all very clear.
If we accept the current amendment, it would be for eight hours of meetings at a meeting schedule to be determined by us after this vote, or how is that going to be determined?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Yes, we would have to determine that after this vote when we determine how many meetings we would have going forward for the schedule.
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
The total hours that we're voting on in this amendment per month for July and August would be...?
Liberal
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Nancy, when you're ready.
(Amendment negatived: nays 6; yeas 5)
I would like to remind members that there's no debate during a vote. It's just a yea or a nay, so let's stick with that, please.
Now we go back to the main motion by Mr. Johns, which I think we all understand as two meetings per month for July and August.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
We will move on to further business, and discuss the dates we would sit. Somebody brought that up earlier.
Does anybody have any suggestions?
Mr. Beech.
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
I'm open to whatever is good for the committee, but I would suggest perhaps the same days as hybrid Parliament, if that works for everybody.
The Clerk
Mr. Chair, I would like to clarify that when it comes to the schedule of the committee, the members have to be in touch with their whips. Some work has to be done with the whips of the committees and with the resources of the House to see when there are availabilities and when it is possible to meet.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
If everybody is in agreement, can we leave this until next week so we can talk to the House leadership to see what dates they propose are better for the committee when we sit in July and August? Mr. Arnold has indicated that he is okay with that. Is everybody else okay with it?
Hearing no dissent, I'll assume that's good to go. We'll get that schedule ironed out, although it doesn't have to be done right away, as it's not until July and August.
Ms. Gill.
