Foreign Affairs Committee on Sept. 24th, 2018

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Erica Pereira]

Good afternoon, honourable members of the committee. I see we have a quorum here today.

Before we begin, I want to inform the members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. I cannot receive other types of motions. I cannot entertain points of order, and I cannot participate in debate.

We can now proceed to the election of the chair. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party. I am now ready to receive motions for the position of chair.

Mr. Wzesnewskyj, go ahead.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I would like to nominate Michael Levitt.

[The Clerk]

It has been moved by Mr. Wzesnewskyj that Mr. Levitt be elected chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

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

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Michael Levitt duly elected chair of the committee.

Congratulations. I will invite you to come up to the chair.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Michael Levitt, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

Good afternoon, everyone.

Let me begin by thanking the members of this committee for placing their trust in me as chair. With members' support, I plan to continue this committee's tradition of the collegiality and co-operation we have enjoyed for two and a half years.

I also want to recognize the efforts of my colleagues on the Subcommittee on International Human Rights, whom I have worked with for the last two and a half years. We have done some incredible work together, and this is going to be a new chapter for me.

I also want to recognize and welcome new members to this committee: Frank Baylis and Leona Alleslev.

Given that we've just sat down here and that I have not had a chance to meet yet with the clerk, I'm going to recommend that, before we go ahead with any new business, I have an opportunity to be briefed by the clerk and the analysts on the committee business.

While our consular affairs draft is on today's agenda, given that the addendum was only distributed at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, perhaps it's best that we give members some time to look at it and submit any edits they might want to propose. This is just a reminder that any substantive changes should be submitted to the clerk in both official languages.

We have a trip to the Arctic coming up. We have lots of interesting work to do, but if there is nothing further right now, I would like to adjourn this meeting.

There is one last act before I do. For the last two and half years, we've had the Honourable Bob Nault as chair of this committee. I want to thank Bob for his efforts. We've done some really important work over the last two and a half years. A number of the members have been here since the beginning. I want to recognize Bob's efforts and thank him for his service in this committee.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Michael Levitt, Liberal, York Centre, ON]

The meeting is adjourned.