Foreign Affairs Committee on March 9th, 2010

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mrs. Carmen DePape]

Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.

We can now proceed with the election of the chair. I am ready to receive motions to that effect.

[An hon. member]

I don't think you can win this vote, Dean.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

I'm going to need help from you guys.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Goldring.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

I would like to nominate Mr. Allison as chair.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Goldring that Mr. Allison be elected as chair of the committee.

Are there further motions?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Allison duly elected chair of the committee.

Before inviting the chair to come forward, if the committee wishes we will proceed with the election of the vice-chairs.

I am now ready to receive motions for the first vice-chair, a member of the official opposition.

Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I nominate Mr. Patry.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Madame Lalonde that Dr. Patry be elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Are there further motions?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Bernard Patry duly elected as first vice-chair of the committee.

I am now ready to receive motions for the position of second vice-chair.

[Johanne Deschamps, Bloc, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I nominate Ms. Francine Lalonde.

[The Clerk]

Moved by Ms. Deschamps that Ms. Lalonde be elected second vice-chair of the committee.

Are there any other motions?

(Motion agreed to.)

[The Clerk]

I now invite the chair to take the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

I believe you all have the routine motions, and since I am a new member of this committee, this is just a reminder to me as well as to all of you here.

I believe we have one other new member, Dave Van Kesteren, on the committee.

On Wednesday, March 3, 2010, the House of Commons adopted the following order:

That, for all standing committees, routine motions in effect at the time of prorogation of the previous session be deemed to have been adopted in the current session, provided that committees be empowered to alter or rescind such motions as they deem appropriate.

Accordingly, the routine motions that were in effect at the time of prorogation are reinstated. The clerk will reflect the House order in the minutes of this meeting. The committee can, if it chooses, amend any of these motions.

Finally, for information purposes, the clerk has distributed a copy of the motions to all committee members.

Is there any discussion on that?

Seeing none, we'll move forward with that.

Madame Lalonde.

[Francine Lalonde, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I believe we have accomplished what we came here for today and we must convene the steering committee to organize the committee's work.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much, Madame Lalonde. I was actually going to suggest that we look at striking a committee and that we set a date and time to meet to discuss the potential business of the committee moving forward.

I believe the way the subcommittee has worked in the past is that we have had the vice-chair of each committee, as well as the chair, as well as Mr. Dewar, as well as the parliamentary secretary. Is that correct? I guess we have consent to proceed in that fashion then.

[The Clerk]

Not the parliamentary secretary, though.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

No, I'm sorry, the parliamentary secretary is there.

You are there; I apologize.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Oh, man, I'd feel terrible, for all these things that I'd raised earlier on....

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes; or at least one of them.

Do we want to set a time for a steering meeting? Or what do we want to move forward on?

Go ahead.

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

I say as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Would Thursday morning make sense, let's say at 9 o'clock?

[An hon. member]

Yes, fine.

[An hon. member]

No problem.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

All right. But would the steering meeting be in replacement of the meeting, or would we want to have it before so that we continue with our meeting?

Mr. Obhrai.

[Deepak Obhrai, Conservative, Calgary East, AB]

Mr. Chair, my suggestion is that we have a steering committee meeting and then we have the main committee meeting after that, because whatever happens in the steering committee we have to pass in the main committee so that it can be processed. From Tuesday we can go back....

If we delay going to the main committee, then whatever was discussed in the steering committee would be delayed.