Evidence of meeting #15 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lebanon.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Madam McDonough, I'll respond this way, in that you called Friday evening and--
Conservative
NDP
Alexa McDonough NDP Halifax, NS
No, I called earlier in the day and you returned my call Friday evening.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
All right. Well, whenever, but I was told by the clerk's office that no one was told that on Friday. They were told that on Monday.
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
I was not aware of that, and I am still not.
Madame Folco, you're on the list.
Liberal
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
Thank you very much, Chair.
This is an important question we have in front of us, which is not whether we should have one witness or another. The real question is, what should Canada do and what should Canada say about the situation in the Middle East?
I would strongly suggest that there have been mistakes on both sides, from what I understand.
I do understand, from my former role as the chair of a committee, that it is up to the committee, as Madame Lalonde explained, to decide who are going to be the witnesses. I would suggest that rather than call for a vote, we have another gentleman's understanding on both sides of this table that we hear the members from CIDA, that we hear the Red Cross, and that immediately after, we have discussions about committee business.
It is obvious that various people understand various things about it. So that there is no misunderstanding on this, please let's have a gentleman's--
Liberal
Raymonde Folco Liberal Laval—Les Îles, QC
I'm asking you as chair to go around and ask people whether they would agree to then go on to hear this particular group of witnesses, who are fonctionnaires, who are here.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
Madame Folco, are you speaking on behalf of all the Liberal Party or just--
Conservative
Conservative
Peter Van Loan Conservative York—Simcoe, ON
Mr. Patry, I believe Madame Folco has made an eminently sensible suggestion. I've heard nothing, not one suggestion from anybody on that side of the table, why we cannot hear from CIDA and then do committee business later.
Perhaps there's an objection on the part of the opposition to hearing CIDA. I haven't heard anybody voice that. What I've heard is a lot of discussion of what I think would actually be the discussion we might have if we were at committee business, which, if we were there, might end up being academic.
The only thing that I know is on committee business right now is the motion, but Madame Folco has put forward what I think is an eminently workable and practical suggestion to get our work done. It would allow the CIDA people to say their piece and to be heard by us; it would allow them to get back to the very important priorities of delivering that humanitarian aid and working on the situation in Lebanon.
In the absence of any reason why we can't hear from CIDA before dealing with the business, I think Madame Folco has hit the mark right on.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
It is Madame Folco's recommendation, and if the government is--
Liberal
Bernard Patry Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Madame Folco, we have a motion. You cannot have another motion if we have a motion on the table.
Conservative
Liberal
Bernard Patry Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
No, I'm just telling you. You think what you want to think; those are the rules.
Now, it is a fact that you have a motion on the table. The rule is to answer Mr. Van Loan. You told me at 11:55 we were going to go to future business, committee business, right away, and suspend there. The questions is, do we trust you as a chair or don't we trust you as a chair on this side of the committee? If you want our trust--you see that we can all work together--you need to go along with what you said. You said that, and we have witnesses.
I'm very sorry. You've got a motion? There is no motion on the table. You vote on this motion or keep talking. That's it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
If we could have suspended or adjourned.... Some said to adjourn and do committee business. I wasn't going to adjourn; we hadn't heard from CIDA.
Liberal
Bernard Patry Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
When you're adjourned, there's no more committee. Everything is ended. You're suspended.
