Government Operations Committee on Feb. 16th, 2016

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Leif-Erik Aune]

Honourable members, I see a quorum. My name is Leif-Erik Aune. I'm the clerk of your committee.

I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions, cannot entertain points of order, nor participate in debate.

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

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

I nominate Tom Lukiwski.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Blaney has nominated Mr. Lukiwski.

Are there any further motions?

No. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Clerk]

(Motion agreed to)

The motion is carried and Mr. Lukiwski is duly elected chair of the committee.

Sir, would you like to take the chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Thank you very much and good afternoon, everyone.

I noticed when I was speaking with Frank a few moments ago that this is a unique committee. Even though we have over 200 new members in Parliament this year, this committee only has three returning members: myself, Madam Ratansi, and Monsieur Blaney.

I welcome all of you new to Parliament. Erin and I know each other, both being from Saskatchewan. I am pleased to say I'm looking forward to chairing this committee. I think it's going to be a good committee.

Traditionally this has been fairly non-partisan, although over time there has been the odd controversial issue that has appeared before the committee, as Madam Ratansi would know, having been a chair of this committee. The studies and the work that we do affects all parliamentarians and all levels of government within all ministries.

I think we should be able to get along well. I certainly pledge to you I'll be doing my utmost to make sure I'm as fair as possible in all rulings. That's the way I like to operate. We're not looking to try to gain any political strokes here, at least not from the chair. I am looking forward to working with all of you over the course of the next months and hopefully years to come.

With that, I would like to recommend that the clerk of this committee now move on to the appointment of the vice-chairs.

[The Clerk]

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the government party. I'm now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.

[Francis Drouin, Liberal, Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON]

I'd like to nominate Ms. Yasmin Ratansi as vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

Monsieur Drouin has moved that Yasmin Ratansi be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.

Are there further motions? Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Clerk]

(Motion agreed to)

Yasmin Ratansi has been duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2) the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition. I'm now ready to receive motions for the second vice-chair.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I nominate Mr. Erin Weir as the second vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

David Graham has nominated Erin Weir. Are there other motions?

Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed,

[The Clerk]

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Weir, you are the second vice-chair, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

I'll ask for the will of the committee. We have a number of routine motions and all of you probably have copies of them in front of you. Most of them are fairly pro forma, but there's two that I think will have the interest of this committee and I would suggest that we perhaps deal with those now.

The first is the length of time and the rotation for questioning witnesses. I know there has been a suggestion brought forward by the government as to the rotation length of time for questioning for a traditional meeting of approximately 50 minutes. For new members I would point out that these committees meet for a two-hour period. Many times witnesses are brought in for one-hour blocks. If that is the case, normally the committees allow up to ten minutes for opening comments, and then the remaining 50 minutes would be for questioning from the committee. The government has proposed a rotation list and a timeframe, but the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has also adopted a separate rotation and timeframe. I would ask that if there are any comments we can deal with them now, but I would think it would be in the best interest of this committee if we could determine, before we leave this afternoon's meeting, which one of those two rotations and time allocations we would take. I would invite anyone who has a question or a comment to identify yourself.

The clerk has informed me that the routine commissions are the routine motions that were adopted by the last Parliament's committee. Does everyone have a copy of the government's submission as to rotation and length of time?

[The Clerk]

It hasn't been distributed yet, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

It has not been distributed?

Erin, can I just ask you straight out, have you seen the proposed rotation list for questioning and the length of time allocated?

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

I haven't seen it in writing. We have heard some things about it, but no I haven't seen it.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

The clerk has extra copies.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Has the government all seen your own submission? I think we're all fine except for Mr. Weir.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Only Mr. Weir needs one.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

The opposition has copies and Erin has one now. Erin, do you have both the government's suggested rotation and the rotation agreed upon by PROC?

[Erin Weir, NDP, Regina—Lewvan, SK]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Tom Lukiwski]

Does anyone want to either open up discussion or perhaps make a motion? As I told Madam Ratansi, I'm speaking a little bit out of turn here as the chair, but I can say that the opposition has met. We've taken a look at both these submissions, both the government's proposal and the one adopted by PROC. The opposition has no issue with either one. I'm just looking for someone to make a recommendation and a motion.