Evidence of meeting #131 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 floor.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
—I should have the floor, since I had the floor when we were debating this motion last. If you're resuming consideration—
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
You are calling a point of order. You can't gain the floor through a point of order.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
You're right that I can't gain the floor through a point of order. However, when you resume consideration on a previous matter, the member who had the floor—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Mr. Green, I believe it is considered a whole new motion because I was overruled. However, it appeared you had given up the floor when I asked the question.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I just wanted to put into light what has transpired here, which is that the spirit of committees is that the committees direct their own course of action. Despite what I would consider to be the authoritarian instincts of the Conservative leader, what we have is a situation where committees are going beyond the usual practices of having planning meetings and subcommittees where all parties and all opposition parties can determine the course and direction of a committee.
To have Conservative-chaired committees decide unilaterally when, how and what we meet on is an authoritarian instinct that I think goes against the spirit of the Standing Orders.
What you witnessed in overturning your decision, sir, is a reminder that the committees are at the democratic will of the members of the committee.
When people go on and on—and I've seen the Conservative bot farms and rage farms online go on and on—about shutting stuff down, it couldn't be further from the truth.
New Democrats will stand up to Conservatives and all the other cockamamie things that are happening here. We're going to take a position that we work. We work in our constituencies as well. When we come to Ottawa, this is part of the job. We come here as legislators. We do that. We've done that for a very long time. Our work, at least for me, is in Hamilton Centre.
When you have people go on a filibuster and talk about how they're going on vacation this summer, in the winter, on March break and they're always on vacation, that's crazy. For me, when I go back to my constituency, it's harder work.
Now, maybe it's the case that the leader of the Conservative Party doesn't care to hear from Canadians in constituencies, but I'll tell you this: As a New Democrat, my job is to represent my riding to the capital, not the capital to my riding and not the leader's office to my riding. I'm very keen to get back and hear how Hamiltonians are facing the struggles that are before them. I'm keen to get very candid feedback about the direction they want to see from this country in the next little while.
If there had been courtesy provided in other situations that would have included other parties in the decision-making and the direction, we wouldn't be here today. We're in a minority government, despite whatever fantasy world Pierre Poilievre or Andrew Scheer, whoever, wants to live in. I'll tell you this, Mr. Chair. Still, at 40%, 60% of the country doesn't approve of the direction that the Conservative Party wants to take the country in.
This is a minority government. Every committee is in a minority situation. It requires support from the other two opposition parties when you want to go in a direction. It's not the call of the chair. That's why we put these frameworks in place.
The 106(4), to me, is the democratic way to recall a committee. It is the way you can find a willing partner in any of the other parties to decide the direction.
If the Conservative caucus can't find another party to co-operate with on the direction of a committee, then it doesn't have a mandate to go in that direction. It's pure and simple. Just as it was experienced here, whether it was irregular or not. I'm under no illusions that any of the common courtesies are going to be adhered to in any potential future fantasyland of a Conservative iteration of government. I'm not naive. I know what to expect, but that doesn't mean I'm just going to accept it.
From that position, I just want to say that we're ready to work, as we do in the House of Commons here in Ottawa, with our jobs back in our communities over the summer. Should a situation occur that merits investigation, I think it would be preposterous for anybody in the Conservative caucus to think that there is some kind of Bloc Québécois-NDP cabal. We've been accused of a lot of things. I don't know that we've ever been accused of that.
If you can't find a willing partner in either of the other opposition parties, then you're on your own, pure and simple.
The stuff that I see online and I hear about in my own committee in ethics—the vitriol and abuse.... Fortunately for me, I'm from Hamilton, so we have thick skin.
For the people who are watching, if you have any illusions that committees somehow ought to operate as though the Conservatives have a majority, that's not the case right now. I can't tell the future, but I can tell you right now that's not the case. I'm here to put the Conservative caucus on notice that if they want to.... Consider it a notice of motion or a dilatory motion, Mr. Chair.
Have the chuckle, but I promise you this. If you all want to use your powers arbitrarily to call a meeting without consulting with any of the other parties, it's going to be adjourned. It's going to be adjourned because we can count; we can count the votes in the room. This is still a minority situation.
That's why I came in here fired up today.
Kelly, I have a lot of respect for you, my friend, and I know that you take your orders from the leadership just as the rest of your caucus does. I get it.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
On a point of order, Chair, the member is now disparaging the chair and his role.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I am not at all. I just said I have respect for him. Let the Hansard show I have respect for him.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
Yes, let the Hansard show that you said, “I have respect for you, and you don't fulfill the functions of the chair properly. You take orders from somewhere else.”
Conservative
Conservative
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
It is a point of order. The Standing Orders have established rules around decorum, and that's a violation of that decorum.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
I know that after me it's going to be your guys, so I'm going to get everything.
Bloc
Julie Vignola Bloc Beauport—Limoilou, QC
If there were seven or eight francophones around the table talking at the same time and there were one or two anglophones around the table as well, and the interpreters couldn't do their job because no one was listening and everyone kept interrupting each other, that would be unacceptable. However, that's exactly what I've been experiencing for the last 15 minutes.
Have the respect to listen to your colleagues, to raise your hand when it's time to speak, to raise a point of order, if necessary, as I just did. That will make things much more courteous, much more pleasant, both for you and for us, and for the people listening to us in the room or elsewhere.
Thank you.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I apologize. Mr. Chair, while I have the floor, I do have a question about our resources.
How long do we have resources for?
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Okay. I'm going to say, at this moment, that I'm going to move to suspend this meeting. Thank you.
