Foreign Affairs Committee on Dec. 13th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you, Mr. Morantz. We are working, with apologies, from two different sets of documents, and thank you for clarifying. I wanted to make sure that every member of the committee has the understanding that it is indeed five members.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

It was just to clarify, though.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Yes, thank you very much.

Okay. We now have a set of additional motions beyond the ones we have just accepted.

Mr. Morantz or Mr. Genuis, if you'd like, I'll ask one of you to introduce those. I have them in front of me as well. I'm happy to do it, but if you'd like to present them, please go ahead.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

The next one is on gifts. It reads, “That the committee be authorized to purchase gifts”—

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

A point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Did you want to comment, Mr. Bergeron?

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

Mr. Chair, do we have copies of these additional motions? I don't have them at hand.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

I have just been advised that the clerk will distribute them again in a moment.

[Stéphane Bergeron, Bloc, Montarville, QC]

That's great, thank you.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Mr. Chair, should I continue on or wait until—

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

If it's okay with colleagues to listen to them orally with the knowledge that they will be in their inbox momentarily, maybe we can proceed that way.

Mr. Morantz, go ahead, please.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Sure. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The motion on gifts reads as follows:

That the committee be authorized to purchase gifts to be presented to foreign hosts and visiting delegations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much.

Is there any discussion on that motion, or questions?

As a side note, Madam Clerk, the parameters of those gifts would be established by regulation.

Seeing no discussion and no questions, we've adopted that motion.

(Motion agreed to)

Thank you, Mr. Morantz. We will go back to you.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The motion on televising and webcasting reads as follows:

That all meetings other than those deemed in camera be televised or webcast where possible.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

We will go back to you.

[Marty Morantz, Conservative, Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The motion on the subcommittee on international human rights reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Orders 108(1) and 108(2), a Subcommittee on International Human Rights to be chaired by a member elected by the subcommittee, be established to inquire into matters relating to the promotion of respect for international human rights, as may be referred to it by the Committee;

That, the subcommittee be chaired by a member of the government and be composed of eight members or associate members of which four shall be government members, two shall be from the Conservative Party, one from the Bloc Québécois and one from the New Democratic Party, to be named following the usual consultations with the Whips;

That, the Subcommittee on International Human Rights of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development be granted the authority to print from day to day such papers and evidence as may be ordered by them, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a).

That, the subcommittee be empowered to send for persons, papers and records, to receive evidence, to sit during a time when the committee is not sitting in Ottawa, to sit when the committee is sitting outside the Parliamentary Precinct and to sit during periods when the House stands adjourned; and

That, the Chair of the subcommittee meet with the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure of the committee at their mutual discretion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Mr. Morantz.

Again, if colleagues don't already have it, they should have that motion in their inboxes very shortly.

Is there discussion, comments or debate on the subcommittee on international human rights?

Seeing none, we have adopted that motion as well.

(Motion agreed to)

That, colleagues, unless there are other hidden motions somewhere, would take us to the end of our routine motions.

Go ahead, Ms. McPherson.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

I'm sorry. I did have two routine motions I'd like to propose if I could.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Are they not substantive, but routine motions concerning the work of the committee?

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Sure. Go ahead, please.

[Heather McPherson, NDP, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Thank you.

The first motion that I wanted to propose is that each party represented on the committee be entitled to select one witness per two-hour witness panel.

Obviously this is important so that we make sure there is a diversity of witnesses represented and that all parties have an opportunity to bring forward witnesses. It's important for our committee work, and I think it's an important routine motion to pass.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Thank you very much, Ms. McPherson.

Are there any comments, questions or discussions on that motion?

I see Mr. Oliphant, and then we have Mr. Genuis. Mr. Oliphant, go ahead, please.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Thank you.

I have found there are two ways that committees work on these issues. One is that committee lists are presented, and we do it by the number of seats that Canadians elected to the House of Commons, and we proportion the time exactly. Others are done by consensus through an agenda committee or through working out what is best for the committee to hear.

I have never seen this one before, so I'm just suggesting that I don't believe it's a routine motion. I think it's a different motion, because there are two ways that parliaments have worked on this, and committees have chosen different ways.

I've chaired one committee that always worked on a consensus model and found the best witnesses for the committee. I worked with another committee that always had a percentage, per capita, based on the number of seats elected to the House of Commons. I'm not sure this one is either of those, and so I will need some more information about what that is, because what we've done in the last little while on this committee is basically that the clerk would go through and look at what people have submitted, take out the duplicate witnesses and find a way to balance the parties' submissions.

I have not seen that as a problem. I think it's important for the committee to hear if others have seen it as a problem, but I think we've been fairly successful in working that out. We have a kind of hybrid understanding that we're doing it by the number of seats that have been elected by Canadians and by a consensus to ensure that everyone is finding a way into the committee.

If this is a solution, I guess I need to know what the perceived problem is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sven Spengemann]

Mr. Oliphant, thanks very much.

Mr. Genuis—

Okay, Mr. Genuis is withdrawing. Ms. McPherson wants to come back in. Please go ahead.