Evidence of meeting #27 for Fisheries and Oceans in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you, Mr. Bradgon, but right now I think we're dealing with the amendment by Mr. Arnold.
Mr. Mazier.
Conservative
Dan Mazier Conservative Dauphin—Swan River—Neepawa, MB
To be clear, the amendment is just to make it a priority. It's to make it a priority but to clean it up and to complete it.
That's the amendment right now.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I agree. That's what I understand is the amendment to Mr. Battiste's original motion.
If there are no other interventions on the amendment, could we go to a vote, please?
(Amendment negatived: nays 6; yeas 5 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
The amendment has been voted down. Now we'll go back to the original motion by Mr. Battiste.
Is there any further discussion?
Seeing no hands up, Tina, when you're ready, could you go to a vote, please?
Maybe for clarity, Mr. Battiste could read out the proposed motion once again.
Liberal
Jaime Battiste Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
It's that we get to the prawn study next and then finish off the Pacific salmon study, and then go into Mr. Morrissey's motion on the transfer and sales.
I think that he has the wording better than I do.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay, I think we get the message. Thank you, Mr. Battiste, for that.
We'll go to the recorded vote.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Now that that motion is carried, if we're doing the prawn study first, which was put forward by Mr. Johns, we should look at a deadline for witnesses.
We don't have a lot of time before our next meeting. I don't know if it was the intent to bring officials in first. They may be readily available, because they are probably in Ottawa.
Mr. Johns, do you have any thoughts on that, since that was your motion?
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
We have witnesses that we can contact right away. It's about getting the headsets to them and whatnot.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
That's why, Mr. Johns, I mentioned that if the officials were to come, they could probably come. They may already have headsets and be in Ottawa.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Our next meeting is Monday, so if we had to mail out headsets, say for example, to start salmon first, it may not be guaranteed that we will get the headsets to the people in time and we'd be wasting—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
—a meeting allocation where we could have done something else.
We could maybe do the officials for Monday for the prawn study, if they're available. If not, we still need to have a deadline for the presentation of witnesses.
Mr. Johns, I know it was your motion. Do you want to suggest a date that would give the clerks time to get something moving sooner rather than later?
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Yes, end of Friday would be fine for us. It's just whether that works for the other parties.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay. Tina, does the end of Friday, or say 4 p.m. Friday, eastern time, work for you for the witnesses for the prawn study?
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Tina Miller
I would need some names by tomorrow morning, and noon at the latest, to make it work for Monday, if that's possible.
The Clerk
It's not all the names, just a few tomorrow morning. That can be quickly set up. We don't know about the officials. As long as there are some in advance that can be set up quickly and that works, we can start as early as tomorrow. After that, for that study, the others we can do after if we get them on Friday, and that's fine. Tomorrow morning we definitely need to have a few—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I saw Mr. Johns shaking his head when you said we'd need to have someone for tomorrow morning, so I think that won't be a problem. Also, we could work on the officials as well for at least Monday.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
Mr. Chair, I'm sorry to cut everybody off. Am I the only one having connection problems? It's cutting out a lot. You guys are all talking and then it's cutting off for two or three seconds, and then it goes back. Am I the only one experiencing that?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I'm not experiencing it on my end, Mr. Cormier. It may be just the Internet connection of where you're to—or where you're at. Depending on which part of the country you're in, you say “where you're to” or “where you're at”.
Liberal
Serge Cormier Liberal Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I've never experienced this before, but I'll keep on and I'll check with IT if is still doing it. Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Thank you.
Now, I don't know if Mr. Arnold had his hand up first or if Mr. Morrissey did.
We'll go to you, Mr. Arnold.
Okay, he's not listening.
Mr. Arnold.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you. Everything froze for a minute here as well.
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Okay. I would like to seek some clarification on how many meetings we're going to be able to have for witnesses on this and then what is going to be the end result of the report and so on. How many witnesses might we have space for, so that we know how many to line up?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I understand, Mr. Arnold, that it was for two meetings, and I have to go back to Mr. Johns to see if it was his intent to have a report adopted by the committee and presented in the House, or if it was just for information purposes, only or a letter or whatever.
Mr. Johns, could you enlighten us?