Subcommittee on Food Safety Committee on June 8th, 2009

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

I'm sorry that I'm being interrupted here, but anyway--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

[Inaudible--Editor]...a filibuster now.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Well, we don't need to filibuster. We need to talk about the issues that Mr. Easter talked about--

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Madam Bennett, this is going to be the last time that I rule you out of order.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

I want you to stop that, Mr. Chair. Talking about making a value judgment on my colleague's questions has nothing to do with what we're discussing in terms of how we conduct ourselves over the next hour.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Madam Bennett, he has the floor, whether you like what he's saying or not.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, St. Paul's, ON]

Rule it out of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

You're out of order.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

The strange thing is that I'm not talking about his questions. I'm talking about the comments he made a little bit earlier in this discussion. He talked about the investigator. I had mentioned her. He also tried to use the word “cover-up”, as though there were something going on here and he hasn't had access to information.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Certainly he has gotten access to every bit of information that he's--

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

A point of order, Mr. Easter.

[A voice]

I don't think you can interrupt a point of order, Mr. Chair--

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

I believe the question that is on the floor, Mr. Chair, and that we're asking you to rule on, is whether or not you're going to accept a challenge to the chair. The issues and the cover that Mr. Anderson is providing to the government have nothing to do with the challenge to the chair.

You've been challenged, Mr. Chair, on your ruling when this side of the table asked at least for another round to question CFIA officials who are here.

Mr. Anderson can go on all he likes. It's not going to make a whole lot of difference.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

And the question...?

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

The question is on your ruling, and we've asked you.... Ms. Bennett has asked you and has challenged your decision that the meeting would be suspended because what she requested was another round of questioning with CFIA officials. Then we could go forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Mr. Easter, if you were listening, I believe the meeting is going on. I asked the question: is there consensus to go ahead? Mr. Anderson has the floor and is speaking to that.

Mr. Anderson.

[David Anderson, Conservative, Cypress Hills—Grasslands, SK]

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. I guess I will probably be interrupted a few more times because they don't seem to be able or willing.... Here comes Mr. Easter apparently, again waiting to do another interruption.

Again, he starts talking about the fact that I'm talking to the issues, and that's exactly what I'm doing. Because we've had a good set of hearings. There has been no attempt to cover anything up. The CFIA has been here twice. These folks have had, I think, almost three hours with them, and they were good enough to come back. We asked them to come. They came. The minister came. Officials have been here. The industry has been here. Everyone has been here, and I'm not sure why the opposition can't be satisfied with that. I think it's because this didn't turn out the way they thought it would turn out.

We actually also have the fact that the opposition wants to attack you and your rulings here. We see Mr. Easter going after you as soon as he doesn't get his own way. It's either the minister's fault, it's the investigator's fault, or it seems to be your fault.

Mr. Chair, I'd just like to point out that we had a schedule, and we have stuck to our schedule in the past here and I think it's reasonable that we stick to it again. We were here at 4 o'clock this afternoon. We started with the folks we had initially, the Supply Chain Food Safety Coalition and the Canadian Health Coalition. The next group was the Canadian Trucking Alliance--

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

A point of order.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Could you ask the clerk, Mr. Chair...? I've been at meetings where the chair has been challenged before, and I believe, under the rules of procedure, it is such that the chair calls for a vote on that challenge to the chair immediately, without debate. Is that not correct?

[Andrew Chaplin, Procedural Clerk, House of Commons]

Yes.

[Wayne Easter, Liberal, Malpeque, PE]

Then why is that not happening?

Could you put that on the record, Clerk? Is that not the proper procedure?

[The Clerk]

The question on the challenge to the chair is put forthwith without debate.