Evidence of meeting #28 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 prawns.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Mr. Chair, could you give us a ruling on the questions I have raised?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay.
Could I ask the committee to suspend for a moment? I'll have a chat with the clerk. I'll ask her to give me a call.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I, of course, apologize for the length of time it has taken to have some discussions on this. I believe, with regard to Mr. Morrissey's point.... In my discussion with the clerk, I've been told that the only way that individual members can be directed to do something specifically is by the House of Commons. Therefore, I am compelled to rule the motion inadmissible as it now is.
Mr. Morrissey, do you have your hand up, or are you waving goodbye? Okay.
Mr. Johns, you have—
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Mr. Chair, no, I wasn't waving goodbye.
Mr. Chair, I'm not sure that we can amend an inadmissible motion, but we could proceed with a motion that would read something like this: “That the committee ask the Minister to provide clarity on the season's regulations to industry as urgently as possible in order to provide certainty for this year's season.” I would be agreeable to that. We all agree. There's consensus on getting Clarity from the minister. It was just that the process that was being put forward by the Conservative member was, as we found out, inadmissible, and it simply wouldn't accomplish anything, Mr. Chair.
I, for one on this committee, want to accomplish clarity. I believe that we could do it in a motion such as I suggest if it receives the support of this committee, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay, thank you for that.
Mr. Arnold, do you have your hand up?
Wait. I'm sorry. Mr. Johns was waving his hand as I was debating whether Mr. Morrissey raised his hand or if he was just waving it.
Mr. Johns.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
I definitely had my hand up.
We've asked for clarity from the minister. With regard to this motion that was deemed inadmissible, I think we could still amend it, such that we just ask the minister, in a letter from the committee, to permanently rescind the interpretation. All we could do is take everything in here, and we could just put, “That the committee...”.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
—you can't amend a motion that's already been deemed inadmissible.
Mr. Morrissey has another motion on the floor. If you want to amend that, that would be fine.
NDP
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Okay. I think we should amend it. Hopefully, Mr. Morrissey will be friendly to this. We can't just have this open-ended and vague motion with no-timeline for the minister to rescind this season the reinterpretation of the rule. We're asking her to just stop this permanently—to just drop the whole thing. That's what we need. That's what we're looking for. I think that's the goal of this. I hope Mr. Morrissey would be open to amending his motion that we're sending a message to the minister. We're calling on her to rescind her decision and the reinterpretation of this rule.
We heard.... Everybody heard.... We're united here in thinking that this is ridiculous. I don't know anyone on this screen who doesn't. I just hope that Mr. Morrissey would be open to an amendment to clean up this motion that he has so that....
How are we going to do it with the rules around translation? We want to make sure that we accommodate Ms. Gill. Out of respect to Ms. Gill, we have to honour that. I hope that Ms. Gill can share her perspective on that because we have to respect her and her right to have this in her language, in French, her first language. I just want to ensure that we have this in both official languages.
I'm hoping that we can pursue something a little more substantial in terms of a motion if we're making a motion. The previous motion was vague at best. I think that we need something a lot more clear and a lot more substantial from this committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Before I go to anyone else, I will ask Madam Gill if she's getting all of this in translation.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
No, I did not get the translation. Yes, as Mr. Johns said, I would like to get the translation.
Liberal
Conservative
Mel Arnold Conservative North Okanagan—Shuswap, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
What Canadians need is certainty. All we really want is the Liberal members to meet with the minister and relay to her the urgency of this matter. Really, it's coming down to legal opinions on what the interpretation is. I don't know if there's anyone except the minister who can actually put out a directive to say what that interpretation is.
The interpretation was that tubbing would not be permitted. It needs to be very clear that tubbing will continue and that the reinterpretation will be rescinded. These prawn harvesters and the people who rely on them need this certainty. Really, all we wanted was for the government members on the committee to approach the minister to express the urgency of the situation and to have her be very clear: not just to provide an opinion or clarity, but to be very clear that the reinterpretation that tubbing would be illegal has been rescinded. That's all.
Thank you.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
To that point, Mr. Arnold, to one of them at least, I believe that I've already ruled that the committee cannot direct committee members to do something. The only way that can be done is through the House, yet your discussion was again asking the Liberal members to do exactly what was inadmissible in the form of a motion.
I'll now go to Mr. Calkins. He's had his hand up. Maybe he's got it back down.
Conservative
Blaine Calkins Conservative Red Deer—Lacombe, AB
I did put it back down.
Suffice it to say, Mr. Chair, that I appreciate the comments that Mr. Beech made earlier suggesting that the intent of what our motion was had already been done to that effect, but I'm looking forward to having Mr. Johns actually present something. If he has some specific text to specifically request something of the minister, I would be happy to see what that is.
Liberal
Terry Beech Liberal Burnaby North—Seymour, BC
I hope that I can suggest the following common-sense solution to the committee.
I've already stated that I'm going to speak to the minister today. There's a motion on the floor right now from Mr. Morrissey, which I guess somebody is probably rushing to translate into French so that it can be an actual motion, but we do meet on Wednesday. If the motion—I don't have the exact wording in front of me—says that we request an urgent response, and if we don't have a response by Wednesday, well, then, the committee can continue to take further action.
Why don't we pass Mr. Morrissey's motion? If committee members then feel on Wednesday that further action is needed because they don't feel that enough action was taken in these next 48 hours, we can deal with it then. I think if we just pass the motion. I know that the minister is taking this issue seriously, and I would expect there to be urgent results.
Conservative
Richard Bragdon Conservative Tobique—Mactaquac, NB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Now we're down into procedure, obviously, and we're down into this and that, but really, we can expedite this. If Mr. Beech is agreeable that he speak directly with the minister, we can have something back perhaps as early as Wednesday night that will give clarity to the prawn harvesters and to the sector that wants urgent action taken and clarity brought to the situation, and that brings to this the resolution that we wanted.
If Mr. Beech has already volunteered and is willing to do that.... I see that Mr. Johns is in favour of it. I think we would be good with that as well. I'll take Mr. Beech at his word. I trust that we'll have some form of clarity around this by Wednesday night, hopefully. I'm good with that. If he's good with that, I think we got to where we need to be.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
I see that Mr. Beech gave a thumbs-up to it, so I believe we'll take that as the affirmative.
Madame Gill, you had your hand raised.
Bloc
Marilène Gill Bloc Manicouagan, QC
Actually, it was for Mr. Morrissey's motion, which I didn't get in French, but if we can agree, there's no problem, it's fine with me. So I'll come to an agreement with you by Wednesday.
Liberal
Bobby Morrissey Liberal Egmont, PE
Yes, Mr. Chair, I'll rescind my motion based on the common conversation here and the undertaking that Mr. Beech has given to the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ken McDonald
Okay.
Okay. Now, the committee is back to normal now: congenial and getting things done together as a group. It's great to have everybody back.
On that note, I'll say thank you again to the witnesses today. I have to say as an East Coaster that it was very informative to hear what's going on on the west coast and to hear that you're experiencing some problems that I experience on this side of the country as well. Again, thank you, one and all, for your testimony here this evening. It was very valuable.
Again, I want to thank Mr. Johns for pushing this as a study and pushing to get it done, because it seems that it did need a lot of attention brought to it. Hopefully, we can get something rectified very shortly—