Government Operations Committee on Oct. 26th, 2020

[The Chair (Mr. Robert Kitchen (Souris—Moose Mountain, CPC)), Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Good afternoon, everybody. I see we have quorum, so I will call the meeting to order.

I welcome you to the third meeting of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates.

The committee is meeting for the next hour today to consider future business, and following that meeting the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure will meet for an hour and continue planning for the work of the committee.

Pursuant to the motion adopted by the House on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, the committee may continue to sit in a hybrid format. This means that members can participate either in person in the committee room or by video conference via Zoom. Just so that you are aware, today's meeting is in public.

To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules.

Interpretation in this video conference will work very much like a regular committee meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of floor, English or French. Before speaking, please wait until I recognize your name. When you are ready to speak, you can click on the microphone icon to activate your mike. When you are not speaking, your mike should be on mute. To raise a point of order during the meeting, committee members should ensure their microphone is unmuted and say “point of order” to get the chairman's attention.

In order to ensure social distancing in the committee room, if you need to speak privately with the clerk during the meeting, please email him at the committee mailbox. Also, if you wish to consult with the analysts—they are with us today—please communicate with them via that means as well.

On Friday, the clerk sent out the text of three motions that were debated during the OGGO meeting on Thursday, October 8, 2020. The debate on all three of these motions was adjourned.

Members were also asked to submit any suggestions they had for discussion during this meeting. We received suggestions from Ms. Vignola, which were transmitted to committee members on Friday.

I will now open the floor for members of the committee to discuss which subjects they wish to discuss.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We have several motions on the table, but I would like to table one today. I believe it will only require one meeting. It reads as follows:

That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(2), the committee undertake a study of the federal contract for 10,000 pandemic ventilators awarded to FTI and manufactured by Baylis Medical, and that the committee report its findings to the House in November 2020.

Thank you Mr. Chair.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Yes, Mr. Green, you have a point of order.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Am I not to understand that when we adjourn, we pick up the adjournment based on the motion that we adjourned on, or do we just start completely open?

I believe I still have a motion on the floor. I didn't know that adjournment was a reset.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

In the last meeting, we actually just continued on, but I believe in the last one we sort of [Inaudible—Editor].

When I opened the floor, I saw Mr. Paul-Hus first; however, there is an opportunity, Mr. Green, if you wish to put forward a motion to resume debate, or we can finish the debate quickly on the motion of Mr. Paul-Hus and then go straight to you to resume that debate.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Just to be clear, in the last meeting, you're suggesting that we didn't adjourn while my motion was duly put on the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Yes, as we've come back to this committee, it's really up to where the committee would wish to go.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you for that point of information.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Go ahead, Mr. MacKinnon.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

Mr. Chair, I think we should begin by debating the amendments to Mr. Green's motion that I had submitted to the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

I would agree with Mr. MacKinnon that we would resume the debate on the amendment as proposed, assuming it's the amendment based on the motion originally presented by Mr. Green. The motion you were making the amendment on was one that was not being presented by Mr. Green.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I don't think that's the case, Mr. Chair. My amendment to Mr. Green's motion changes the date and deletes part of the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Sorry, could you repeat that? I apologize. I'm deaf in one ear, and they tell me I can't hear out of the other one. I could not hear the interpreter.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I proposed a two-pronged amendment to Mr. Green's motion, which we were debating just as we adjourned the last meeting. If it is true that we are going to open the meeting by debating Mr. Green's motion, then I think it would be proper that we open the meeting by debating the amendments that I put to his motion that were already on the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Mr. Paul-Hus, do you have a point of order?

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Chair, my motion has been tabled and we can proceed to a vote. Then we can deal with Mr. Green's motion or other motions.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

On a point of order, that's not how it works. We adjourned with a motion on the floor, a motion that had been amended. We were debating the amendments of that motion. If you accept Mr. Green's proposition that his motion was properly on the floor and we adjourned during its debate, then we should open this meeting by discussing Mr. Green's motion. There were proper amendments on the floor being debated as we adjourned that meeting. We should open the meeting, in that case, by debating the amendments that had been put to Mr. Green's motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

I'm going to get the clerk to speak to the amendment.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Paul Cardegna]

If I may, just on the subject of the amendment that was raised by Mr. MacKinnon, just to clarify, my understanding is that Mr. MacKinnon's amendment was to remove the text “by the federal government of a $900 million sole-sourced contract to WE Charity, as well as prior contracts to this organization”. Furthermore, it was to replace the date October 31, 2020 with December 31, 2020.

Mr. MacKinnon, do I have that correct?

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

On the date, wherever it appears....

[The Clerk]

Yes, it appears twice.

Procedurally, when a committee adjourns debate on a motion, the motion remains before the committee, and the committee can take up the debate again at any time; however, it rests with the committee to determine when it wants to do that.

In this case, the chair recognized that Mr. Paul-Hus moved his motion. There is nothing that prevents another member from moving that we resume consideration of Mr. Green's motion. That being said, we wouldn't be resuming consideration of Mr. Green's motion; we would be resuming debate on the totality of it, which is to say the motion and the amendment that Mr. MacKinnon has moved.

At this point, it depends on how the committee wishes to proceed. If the committee wishes to continue with Mr. Green's motion, it only needs somebody to move that, and the committee will take the majority decision on that. Alternatively, Mr. Paul-Hus was recognized and moved a motion that is on the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Yes, Mr. Green. I recognize you.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Mr. Chair, for the good and welfare of this committee, as we've been stymied now for the better part of six months, I'm happy to relinquish my motion on the floor to my friend Mr. Paul-Hus to hopefully get this committee rolling in the spirit of actually getting stuff done here. I'm happy to take up my motion after Mr. Paul-Hus, who has duly put his motion on the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Green.

Hearing that and seeing nothing else, we will carry on with Mr. Paul-Hus.

Is there any discussion on the motion?

Mr. Drouin, go ahead.