Government Operations Committee on June 16th, 2021

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

No, the motion can be entered at any time by anybody. The motion was about coming back to debating Mr. Paul-Hus' motion. That was what it was about, and the vote was to not reintroduce it at that point in time—

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

All right. Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

—so another vote could be done.

Ms. Harder, you have four minutes and you have the floor.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Kitchen.

Mr. Kitchen, I appreciate the clarifying point that Mr. Green just made. I would wish, then, to bring forward the motion that Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus brought forward earlier.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Harder.

We will call for a vote on the motion that is being brought back to the table.

Go ahead, Mr. Clerk.

[The Clerk]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

The question is on the motion by Ms. Harder to resume consideration of the motion in the name of Mr. Paul-Hus moved on June 7.

[Steven MacKinnon, Liberal, Gatineau, QC]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair. I believe a review of the rules would reveal you cannot move the same dilatory motion twice in a meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. MacKinnon.

Ms. Chabot, your hand is up.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Beyond the matter of whether or not we can retake the vote, my concern is that our time for debate would all be used up, because the meeting needs to end in a few minutes. I have to leave at the end of the meeting, as planned, because of work in the House. I therefore request that the meeting be adjourned. That will not prevent us for voting again, if required, but I just want to say that we cannot debate it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Ms. Chabot, we cannot adjourn on a point of order. I'm not aware of any impediment for the motion being moved again, however.

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

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I would ask you to revisit the rules and consult the clerk. You cannot move the same dilatory motion twice during a meeting. You cannot ask the committee to adjourn twice during a meeting. It's the same type of motion that was introduced by Mr. Pierre Paul-Hus.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Mr. Drouin.

We'll suspend for a second.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, everybody. I call the meeting back to order. I appreciate that.

We've had some discussions, and there's sort of a right and wrong answer on where we're at. That said, I think at this point in time, because of the lateness, I'm going to rule in this case that the motion can't be re-entered today, but we'll get further clarification on that.

Ms. Harder, you have the floor.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Mr. Chair, thank you for consulting with regard to that matter.

I move that we adjourn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you, Ms. Harder.

We have a motion to adjourn.

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Wait a minute. On a point of order, is that dilatory?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Matthew Green, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Never mind, never mind....

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Green.

[The Chair, Conservative, Robert Gordon Kitchen]

Thank you.

With that, I'd like to thank the witnesses for being with us today. I appreciate it.

That said, I'm not seeing any discontent, so the meeting is adjourned.