Evidence of meeting #10 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was subcommittee.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Marc-Olivier Girard
Good morning everyone. As you know, there are now 10 members in a standing committee rather than 12. That is why you will have to re-elect your chair and your two vice-chairs this morning.
I see that we have quorum. We may now proceed to the election of the chair.
Pursuant to the standing order, the chair must be a member of the official opposition.
I am ready to receive nominations for the chair.
Conservative
The Clerk
Moved by Mr. Trottier that Mr. Pierre-Luc Dusseault be elected chair of the committee.
Are there other motions?
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
The Clerk
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Pierre-Luc Dusseault duly elected chair of the committee.
Before inviting Mr. Dusseault to take the chair, if it is the wish of the committee, we shall now elect the two vice-chairs of the committee.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the government party.
Mr. Martin.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
I'd like to take this opportunity to nominate the honourable Gordon O'Connor as vice-chair.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Pat Martin that Mr. O'Connor be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?
The Clerk
Mr. O'Connor has been duly elected first vice-chair of the committee. Congratulations.
We move now to elect the second vice-chair. Just a reminder that it must be a member of the opposition party other than the official opposition, that being the Liberals.
I'm now prepared to receive a motion for the second vice-chair.
February 6th, 2014 / 8:45 a.m.
Conservative
Bryan Hayes Conservative Sault Ste. Marie, ON
I move to elect the honourable Gerry Byrne as second vice-chair.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Hayes that Mr. Byrne be elected as second vice-chair of the committee.
Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt this motion?
The Clerk
(Motion agreed to)
Mr. Byrne has been duly elected as second vice-chair of the committee.
Congratulations everyone.
I now invite Mr. Dusseault to take the chair.
Pierre-Luc Dusseault NDPMr. Pierre-Luc Dusseault (Sherbrooke
Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
Thank you very much for your renewed confidence in me this morning. I am pleased to be at the service of the committee once again.
As you can see, there is nothing on our agenda. However, as you know there will be 16 meetings from now until June 19. Consequently I suggest that the subcommittee that has already been struck meet, so that we plan our next meetings. That way we will have a clear idea of our agenda for the weeks to come.
Are the members of the committee in agreement?
Mr. Martin, you have the floor.
NDP
Pat Martin NDP Winnipeg Centre, MB
Mr. Chair, on that subject, given that we've had a reduction in the size of the committee, there has been some conversation between government members and ourselves, and we don't really feel there's a need to have a planning committee for this committee any longer.
We feel that given the truncated size, we could probably operate simply as a committee as a whole. You could still set meetings for planning, but it would be all of the members wishing to come that would be in attendance, and it would save us duplicating and debating the same issues.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
So as early as next Tuesday, we can examine our future business, as a whole committee.
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
Yes. I discussed it with Mr. Martin and we think it makes some sense, given that we're now a 10-person committee. The subcommittee consisted of five people, but there was some duplication because the discussions and the decisions that we would have in the subcommittee then had to be carried over to some extent to be explained to the larger committee. In some ways, it's more efficient to have the plenary of the committee have that discussion.
If we could have that meeting on Tuesday, that would be fine. I don't know if that requires a change to our routine motions where we identify a planning subcommittee right now.
Our experience, Mr. Chair, was that at the last meeting it was very efficient. It wasn't a long meeting anyway. We'd be very amenable to meeting as a whole committee.
NDP
Conservative
Bernard Trottier Conservative Etobicoke—Lakeshore, ON
I'm sorry, I think I misspoke. I said Tuesday, but I think there may be some sense that we can have our first meeting for planning on Thursday, given that Tuesday is budget day and that some activities have to take place that morning.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
Fine.
As I was saying, I do not think that we will have to change the routine motion.
NDP
The Chair NDP Pierre-Luc Dusseault
We can meet as we wish in order to plan our next meetings.
Mr. Byrne, go ahead.
Liberal
Gerry Byrne Liberal Humber—St. Barbe—Baie Verte, NL
I want to raise with my colleagues my past experience sitting on the public accounts committee, which decided to dispense with the subcommittee on planning. It didn't work out well, because there was no mechanism to vet or to try to convene with compromise on key issues. It ended up that we spent a lot of time in regular committee talking about procedural matters and other things.
I understand the sense of collegiality, about seeing whether we can make this happen within the limited timeframe that is normally reserved for hearing witnesses and conducting studies, but I would like to say that I think it's a mistake to do away with the subcommittee, which we're obviously not doing, because it's already confirmed in our routine orders for this committee. I really like the idea of a subcommittee and having it meet on a somewhat regular basis to vet procedural matters and not have the time consumed within the committee.
My experience with public accounts is that we did very little business during our allotted committee time because we just wrangled about procedure. That's it.
NDP