Evidence of meeting #158 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 procurement.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Conservative
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Yes, but we'll be proposing an amendment. Give us just a moment. We're preparing one.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
It's not a surprise. It's been on notice for a long time.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
How long are you going to be? As much as I hate to agree with Mr. Genuis, he is right. It has been on notice for a while.
Do you have it ready? Can you read it into the record?
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
It's being prepared right now so that we can have it properly submitted and distributed.
Conservative
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
It's just coming to me now.
What's important here, though, with regard to the motion and the matters being proposed, even the witnesses before us today, is having transparency and accountability for the work for procurement in every facet, including indigenous procurement. The idea is to provide and promote as much as we can to support the community so it can succeed with some of the government contracts, but at the same time, try to ensure integrity throughout the system.
We absolutely support the transparency and the integrity of all procurement that's done within the Government of Canada. There are thousands and thousands of those contracts, so we want to make certain that it is indeed the case....
The witnesses who have been before us have recognized, too, that it's important for us to support the indigenous community to try to foster some of those contracts, and that is what has happened. There are many who may want to provide support—
Conservative
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
Perfect. Thank you so much.
Do you want me to read it into the record, or would you like to do that on our behalf?
Liberal
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kelly McCauley
Before we do, I'm going to make a suggestion. We're close to one o'clock. I'm going to ask the witnesses to stay until one o'clock. Once we hit one o'clock, I'm going to excuse you folks while we attend to this.
Go ahead, Mr. Sousa.
Liberal
Charles Sousa Liberal Mississauga—Lakeshore, ON
I'm trying to find the amendment so that we can read into the record.
I would like to pass it over to my colleague Irek Kusmierczyk.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Thank you, Charles.
The amendment is, “That the committee include in its report on Indigenous Procurement the recommendation that companies who engage in Indigenous Identity Fraud should be barred from accessing any government contracts.”
I'm happy to speak to that.
Conservative
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Let me try that again.
The amendment is:
That the committee agree to include in its study report on Indigenous Procurement the recommendation that companies who engage in Indigenous Identity Fraud should be subject to the ineligibility and suspension policy in accessing any government contracts.
Conservative
Garnett Genuis Conservative Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB
On a point of order, Chair, I don't think this is an amendment. I think this is a new motion. It's completely different, in every sense, from the original. The original is a different statement about a clearer issue and, as a matter of process, it does a completely different thing, so I just don't think....
The member is welcome to vote against my motion and propose his own motion, but I do not think this satisfies the requirements of what constitutes an amendment.
Liberal
Irek Kusmierczyk Liberal Windsor—Tecumseh, ON
Mr. Chair, may I ask for a brief, one-minute suspension?