Evidence of meeting #1 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
October 8th, 2020 / 12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
I sincerely apologize to Mr. Green. I know he's reading a motion. Listening to the interpreters, I realize that we won't be able to study the content of this motion carefully because Mr. Green is reading it too quickly, and I don't know if we're getting the full meaning of it. I don't know if he has a translated copy of his motion or even if he has the original version so that we can study it.
Mr. Chair, I leave it to you to determine whether the committee is in a position to consider a motion of this magnitude at this time.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
It's my understanding, Mr. Chair, that the translated version has been sent. The members, particularly those who have been on this committee, will note that these are motions we've already passed, so they would be familiar with them once they've seen them. For the new members, I can certainly appreciate why this would be an important addition. We do have the translated copies emailed out.
Notwithstanding that, Mr. Chair, I'm also happy to go back and read them very slowly.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
Did Mr. Green get to the end?
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I didn't want to interrupt. I had the impression he was done, but I'll wait until he is done and then I want to ask a point of order.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Mr. Green, just for clarification, have you sent the translated documents to everyone in the committee or just to the clerk?
NDP
Conservative
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
We can resend them to the entire list, out of courtesy to the members in the group.
The Clerk
If I may, Mr. Chair, we did receive them right before the start of the meeting. No doubt you're aware that, in the absence of a chair, I wasn't able to distribute them at that time.
I could try to distribute them to the committee members now; however, I note that the text I received has some slight changes to what Mr. Green was reading. I believe Mr. Green has made some very minor modifications. When I was following along, there were some sections that had some slight changes to them. Unfortunately, following along, I can't verify that the text I have is completely one hundred per cent.
Mr. Green can maybe speak to that issue, but I did notice some changes in the text that I had that weren't completely the same as what he was saying.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Mr. Chair, for those who were on this committee prior, you'll recall that, out of courtesy, many of the motions that we had, conveniently, leading up to the prorogation of Parliament, provided a courtesy to extend the report-back dates on these works that I'm now presenting again to resume as studies. As fate would have it, prorogation dissolved this within days of us receiving these critical demand documents, so I would have it in good faith of the public sector that they would have already been working on these motions well in advance. I added two or three weeks—to the end of this month, October 31—as an adjustment for the dates that these documents would be returned, understanding that they were already within a week and a half of being returned to our next committee date back in August.
That's the change that has been made.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
Thank you.
Mr. Green, would you finish with your motion, please?
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Thank you very much.
I will restate:
that the committee receive these documents, papers and records no later than October 31, 2020; that departments tasked with gathering and releasing the following documents do their assessment and vetting as would be done through the access to information process; and that these documents be posted on the committee’s web page.
There is also a very apt motion put by my colleague Mr. McCauley on the production of papers. It is within my notes here, but I'll leave that to him to reference at his appropriate time, should he want to have that expedited as well.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Mr. Chair, on a point of order, in light of the fact that Mr. Green has not distributed this in advance, and especially in light of the fact that the clerk has said there are inconsistencies in what was provided to him, can you, as the chair, confirm to the committee members that this motion is in order?
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
It absolutely is a point of order. I am asking the chair if he can confirm that this motion is in order.
Conservative
NDP
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Chair, on a point of order, the clerk does not decide what is in order and what is not in order. That is the chair's job. The chair can go to the clerk for advice, but it is up to the chair to determine if this is in order.
I am asking whether this motion is in order.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
I am going to ask the clerk for advice. We will suspend for a few minutes so I can discuss with the clerk.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Robert Gordon Kitchen
I believe everybody is back, so we will resume the committee meeting.
After the discussions we've had, the information is admissible. It is in order, although it is long and extensive. It appears to be in three sections. At this point in time, I think it's best that we debate the issue as a whole as opposed to the three sections. Once that debate is over, we can sit down and either debate, vote on the whole issue or possibly break it into three sections to vote on the three sections.
With that said, Mr. McCauley, you're next to have the floor.
Conservative
Kelly McCauley Conservative Edmonton West, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Green, thanks for reintroducing basically all the work the committee has agreed to in the past and is outstanding.
Seeing as we're running short on time, I'm going to propose that we vote on this immediately and get it approved so that the committee can get working on serving Parliament and Canadians again.
Liberal
Steven MacKinnon Liberal Gatineau, QC
I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.
My question remains. I don't know how we can properly evaluate a motion of that length and extent without having it in front of us in one way or the other, and preferably, in both official languages.