Foreign Affairs Committee on June 16th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Are there any other comments?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

To get a better idea of the motivation for this, Bob mentioned that the government wants parliamentary secretaries to be involved in steering. I get that, if that's the case, but I might not like it.

I'm wondering if there's a way to keep it as a tight formation that we wouldn't have too big a steering committee, and I'm wondering if we could go back. There is the chair, who obviously is a government member. There are representatives from two opposition parties. We don't make binding decisions at steering committee; it's simply to map out what to bring to committee. Let's be clear about that. I believe any concern the government might have or expertise from the parliamentary secretaries certainly could be communicated by the representative. Indeed, I'm not objecting to having a parliamentary secretary. If we had the language that there be a representative from the respective parties, which I was going to recommend, maybe that would be a compromise.

My concern, frankly, is that we don't get too top-heavy in the composition in terms of numbers. What Mr. Dechert has proposed is a fairly sound argument in terms of having input, but I don't see why that requires more members. I think that could be done through regular communication, and certainly the government has full access to the resources to make sure that's done. I underline the point that we have a chair who's from the government, and that the composition of the steering committee will be well representative of the interests of government, noting that you are very objective and fair, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

All right. Are there any other comments?

I'm going to call the question on the amendment then.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Could we have it read again so we're clear on what we are voting on?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Bob, would you read it again?

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

The motion is that the subcommittee on agenda and procedure be composed of five members, including the chair, the two vice-chairs, and the two parliamentary secretaries.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We have changed the routine motion to add two instead of one parliamentary secretary.

(Motion agreed to)

Okay.

We're going to move to the next routine motion.

Go ahead.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

If I may, Chair, I was hoping we could have an amendment, as I was inferring, that instead of having two vice-chairs, we would have representatives from each of the parties on the committee.

We just went over it with the government side. If we can just decide from each party who is going to be on the steering committee.... I would like to amend the amended motion to allow that it be composed of the chair and, as amended, one representative from each of the opposition parties.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Just to be clear, the chairs represent the opposition party. Are you suggesting additional members on top of that?

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

No, just one representative from each of the opposition parties, instead of the vice-chairs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Hold on a second here.

Mr. Goldring, and then Mr. LeBlanc.

[Peter Goldring, Conservative, Edmonton East, AB]

I am kind of combining this in two questions.

With all due regard and congratulations to the member of the Bloc who is present here, this follows through to the definition and making clear the other motions here too. When we're talking about members of the opposition parties, are we talking about the recognized opposition parties? Furthermore, I'd like to have it clarified in the rules here that when we have people sitting in on these committee meetings...are the rules to allow any members from the non-recognized opposition parties, the Green Party or the Bloc party, to be in attendance at these meetings?

Some of these meetings are in camera. Some of these meetings have witnesses who are appearing here. With all due respect to the Bloc Québécois member here, what are the rules and understanding for this?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Just to be clear, we passed the motion. It is two vice-chairs, which includes the two official parties, and if one of them cannot make it, by all means, you can send a substitute. So the parties will be represented.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

Chair, if I may, what I'm looking at is to have some flexibility for the opposition parties and who the representatives are, and that wouldn't necessarily be the vice-chairs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

That's correct. You can substitute a person. That's not a problem.

[Paul Dewar, NDP, Ottawa Centre, ON]

We've done that in the past. I'm just looking at the language here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We'll make sure we operate the same way. There is no problem at all. If you can't make it, Mr. Dewar, you can send a substitute to the steering committee.

We're going to go to the next routine motion: that the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least three members are present, including a member of the opposition and a member of the government, but when travelling outside the parliamentary precinct, that the meeting begin after 15 minutes regardless of members present.

Is there any discussion on that?

Can I have someone move that?

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

I will ask a question, Mr. Chair. Are you referring to the subcommittee on agenda and procedure?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

No.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Okay. Before we move on, could I just suggest that we clarify that each member is allowed to bring one assistant to the meeting of the subcommittee on agenda and procedure, and each party would be allowed to have a staff member from a House officer, in other words, the whip, I think?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Just a second, Bob. That may be on the second page.

It's on the list, Bob, so we'll get to that.

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Also, there's quorum with respect to the subcommittee on agenda and procedure. Will we deal with that as well?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Let's deal with the quorum. Anything we haven't dealt with after our routine motions, we'll add. How does that sound?

[Bob Dechert, Conservative, Mississauga—Erindale, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

All right. I'm going back to what I just read about quorum. Are there any questions about quorum for the main committee in receiving evidence?