Evidence of meeting #1 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was briefing.
A recording is available from Parliament.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Thank you, Mr. Green.
Mr. Matthew Green's name is put forward as second vice-chair.
Mr. Drouin.
9:10 a.m.
Liberal
9:10 a.m.
The Clerk
The Standing Orders allow that in the event that there are more than two candidates for a position of chair or vice-chair, the vote has to be conducted by secret ballot.
The only thing I would ask now is whether there any further nominations for the position of second vice-chair.
Seeing none, we're going to conduct a secret ballot election. My colleague and I are going to prepare the ballots and hand them out to you. We will have a ballot box; then we will walk it around, and everybody can put the ballots in.
If you will just bear with us, we will get that ready right now.
9:10 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
We will suspend for a couple of minutes until the ballots are prepared.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
I will now call the meeting back to order. My understanding is that the ballots have been collected and tabulated.
Mr. Clerk, could you give us the results, please?
9:15 a.m.
The Clerk
Having tabulated the votes, I declare Julie Vignola to have received the majority of votes.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Now, with that concluded, colleagues, I will confer with my clerk again, but I believe the next order of business would be to adopt some routine motions.
Most of you are familiar with this process, but for the benefit of some of our newer colleagues, what we are about to do is establish what we call routine motions concerning how we conduct our normal day-to-day business, particularly when there are witnesses in front of us.
For example, in previous Parliaments we have had a system whereby, as an example, witnesses before this committee would have a maximum of 10 minutes to speak, at which time questions would follow. Sometimes we've had a seven-minute allowance for questions for the first round of questioning, followed by five minutes in the second round, and so on.
This Parliament is a bit unique since 2015, inasmuch as we have four registered parties rather than three. In the last Parliament, the routine proceedings for this committee gave seven minutes in the first round, allowing two members of the governing party to be heard, I believe, then one from the official opposition and one from, at that time, the third party, the NDP. In the second round there was one from the governing party, one from the opposition and, I believe, a two-minutes slot for the NDP.
In this case, since we have four parties, we can establish our own routine motions.
I am going to ask the clerk to give us a couple of examples, before we go to Francis—or I'll ask the clerk eventually—of some of the routine motions that have been adopted by other committees, and perhaps we will have some suggestions as to the routine motions and speaking order in this Parliament.
Francis, the floor is yours.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
We have a few routine motions that we would like to suggest, and I have copies for committee members in both official languages.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
We'll distribute them. I'll ask everyone to take a look at them, and then we'll have a brief discussion, led by our first vice-chair, Mr. Drouin.
Colleagues, I believe everyone has received a copy of the proposed routine motions that Mr. Drouin has distributed. Since Mr. Drouin was the one who brought forward this proposal, I would ask him to lead us in the discussion.
Francis, perhaps you could take us through it point by point.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I certainly can, but I would defer to my fellow committee members whether or not there are currently any objections to those motions. The one on the analysts speaks for itself. Unless we want to write our own reports, I am pretty sure we would appreciate having the analysts here.
Mr. McCauley, do you have...?
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
The whole thing. It would be easier to proceed.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
The only thing I would suggest is the under the motion on “Independent Members—Clause-by-Clause”, it goes (a), (b), (c), and then (a) again. But the second (a) is the opportunity for an independent member to “make brief representations” in support of their own amendments. The only thing I would ask your opinion of is whether we should quantify what “brief” is, so we don't get someone thinking that “brief” means 15 minutes, as opposed to my own way of thinking that “brief” is three minutes.
I'm just looking for feedback from you folks.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
If I may, Mr. McCauley, for clarification the convention has been that it's up to the discretion of the chair. There's never been a finite or a....
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Okay. If we stick with that I'm perfectly comfortable with it.
9:20 a.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
There is one I want to address, namely, on reduced quorum. I am wondering if we could take a look at that to include two members from the opposition and two members from the government.
Are we going line by line or were you looking to adopt it as a whole package?
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
Yes, Mr. Drouin had suggested that we look at it as a whole. Perhaps now it might be better to just go item by item if there are some specific items.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
We can. We're ready to entertain amendments; if Mr. Green has certain amendments we can certainly entertain them. After that, if there are no issues with the other routine motions, then we can adopt them as a block. I'm fine to go through them one by one. I don't have objections.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Tom Lukiwski
If everyone has had enough opportunity to read the proposed routine motions, why don't we try to see if there are specific amendments that one would like to propose? We can deal with them then vote as a block.
Mr. Green, you have a question under reduced quorum.
9:20 a.m.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yes, I move:
That the Chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and publish evidence when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four (4) members are present, including two (2) members from the opposition and two (2) members from the government
I believe the rest would be in line with what has already been presented.
9:20 a.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
From our side we're okay with that particular amendment.
9:20 a.m.
Conservative