Evidence of meeting #106 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was benefits.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
I'm happy to ask for unanimous consent to withdraw that amendment.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
You could withdraw both of your amendments by UC, actually.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
(Amendment withdrawn)
Can we assume that he has read in his new amendment?
I'll have the clerk read it back a final time to make sure we're all on board with the amendment Mr. Kusmierczyk is proposing.
Thank you for that compromise, sir.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Nancy Vohl
With the second amendment being withdrawn and a new amendment being proposed, it would read, “That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1), the committee order the government and Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) and Health Canada to produce, in both official languages, a copy of all contracts, communications, memoranda, calls for tender and proposal submissions with GC Strategies in the context of the COVID Alert application, and that they be submitted no later than March 15, 2024, provided that these documents be free of all redactions.”
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
No. We've heard the amendment, but we don't support the amendment.
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
We could vote on the amendment, though.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Let's vote on the amendment, then. Go ahead.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 7; nays 3 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I think we're back to the motion as amended now, if I am correct.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
I still have that outstanding concern about the language at the end.
It seems as if, when we're reading it back, we still have in the English version, “provided” that they are unredacted. By my read, this would suggest that, if there are any redactions, they don't have to provide any of the documents.
I would prefer the wording—
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
—“and that these documents be provided free of redaction.” I think we'd achieve in English what we're trying to do.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Are we in agreement with that, colleagues? We don't need to vote.
(Amendment agreed to)
Wonderful. It's “and that these documents be provided free of redactions”.
Can we vote on this motion as amended?
(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Thank you very much, colleagues.
Before we break, just quickly on the upcoming schedule, supplementary (C)s have come out. Because I am an estimates geek, I'm trying to schedule them in. We've sent out invites to the ministers. As always, we will work around the scheduling of the ministers. TBS is not available Wednesday. We are trying to get PSPC for this Wednesday. Otherwise, we have March 18 and 20, so we'll try to work around that.
We've sent out an original invite to kick off Canada Post. We're just waiting to hear back, so we'll fit that in. We are going to be sending out invites very soon regarding the red tape reduction.
If everyone will allow me the discretion to work with the last week of March and the first two weeks of April, we can fit in the ministers for the estimates. Usually the PBO—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I'm sorry. March 18 to 22 is the sitting week of March. I apologize.
The intent is to have the PBO for an hour, as usual, and the ministers and then their attending staff for the second hour as well. When we nail down the president of Canada Post, that would kick off our meeting. We would also kick off with red tape and squeeze that in.
We don't know the date of the last supply day, but, as is our custom, we will still bring in the ministers on their estimates even after the last supply day. We'll work around that if everyone is comfortable.
Mrs. Vignola, did you have your hand up?
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I just wanted to talk about the first week of March. I love seeing my colleagues, be it in a week when committees are sitting or on break weeks. However, I'd like us to be able to spend the first week of March in our ridings. We need to agree on that, so that our faces don't end up on milk cartons.
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
On the box it will say, “Have you seen my MP?”
We will do our best.
Mr. Kusmierczyk
