Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 12th, 2006

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We're all prepared to sit here tomorrow. In consultation with the government, that's why we told the witnesses for tomorrow afternoon that they aren't going to be here, because we're going to be doing this. But procedurally, if the House rises, the committee isn't sitting. There's another process for getting the committee to sit, as I understand it.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Well, I'm not a procedural whiz—I'll admit to that—but there's nothing that could preclude this committee, in good faith, holding the necessary discussions to move forward. If we have to do something procedurally to ratify the consensus that we've achieved when the House meets again, fine, but surely we have enough commitment to see this through.

It would just be unbelievable if we dropped the ball like that. It would also be very bad faith in terms of the many attempts on our part to get us to tackle this sooner, and the assurances again and again by certain members that we had lots of time to make sure we get this through before the Christmas break.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I think we've all worked together on this. You know what? I don't want this to be one of those hypothetical questions of “If the House rises at two o'clock tomorrow, or three o'clock, are we still going to...?” I think the day is going to finish out tomorrow, from what I understand. I think this is hypothetical. Certainly I've never once heard from the government or from any opposition that we will not meet.

[Alexa McDonough, NDP, Halifax, NS]

Mr. Chair, it's not a hypothetical for us to address ourselves to the question of whether we will meet tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 regardless. It's not hypothetical for us to make that commitment, so I'd like to move that we make that commitment. I so move.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right.

Does anyone want to speak to that?

[Bernard Patry, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I just want to say that I don't mind coming here, but if the House closes at 2 o'clock, I don't want to meet at 3:30. Do you know what I mean? We don't know. If you want to be hypothetical, we can be hypothetical about every issue. I don't mind staying until 5:30, but I'm not going to stay here until 10 o'clock. There's no doubt about it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Okay, let's leave it at this. The intention is that we will meet for two hours tomorrow. If the House rises at 11 o'clock, we will try to get a room and get these two hours done so that we aren't sitting here until 3:30 and waiting in the afternoon. Just let us work. We're all agreeing that we want to get this done tomorrow. If we have a chance and the House shuts down at 11 o'clock, we may try to get a room from noon until 2 o'clock.

Thank you, folks. We're adjourned.