Evidence of meeting #41 for Health in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
I call this meeting to order. I want to thank everybody for coming.
The sole purpose of this meeting today is to wish John Oliver a happy birthday—
11:05 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
This is exactly what I want to be doing on my birthday, clause-by-clause.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
Yes, I'm sure it is.
Anyway, we're assembled here today to do clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-37, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act and to make related amendments to other Acts. It has a lot of clauses, and we have some experts with us at the table to help us through. I'll introduce them.
We have Kirsten Mattison, director of controlled substances directorate, healthy environments and consumer safety branch of the Department of Health, and Miriam Brouillet, legal counsel, Health Canada legal services. Welcome.
From Canada Border Services Agency, we have Megan Imrie, director general, commercial program directorate, and Cathy Toxopeus, director of program performance and reporting division. Thanks very much for coming, and we'll be calling on you from time to time.
We have legal counsel and a lot of advice to help us through this clause-by-clause study. Is everybody ready? All right.
We've had no amendments proposed—
Yes, Mr. Davies.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. I'm happy to defer if you think this question will come after what you are about to say, but I just wonder if we can be alerted by the clerk as to when our amendment is appropriately brought up. I presume we're going to move fairly rapidly through the clauses, and I'm not exactly sure when a particular clause invites the amendment, whether from Ms. May, myself, or anybody, or are we supposed to be alert to—
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have just a very brief procedural motion. I noticed that the majority of the amendments before us today relate to clause 42. There are a total of five amendments that relate to clause 42. I think all parties at the table certainly feel the urgency with regard to this piece of legislation and wanting to move it forward. We're willing to do that with pretty much all of the clauses leading up to clause 42, so we should move quite quickly.
That said, I'm wondering if we could agree to amend the original motion that was brought forward to the table by Mr. Oliver. He stated that we would have a maximum of five minutes to debate each clause. I'm wondering if we could agree to five minutes for each amendment, rather than for each clause, given that clause 42 is going to take the bulk of our attention today. I'm hoping that we can choose to be collaborative on this matter.
11:05 a.m.
Liberal
John Oliver Liberal Oakville, ON
Are the five minutes per amendment just the amendments related to clause 42?
11:05 a.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
Yes, sorry. Yes, that would be correct, so I mean just with regard to clause 42. I'm wondering if all parties would agree that we would be limited to five minutes per amendment per party.
11:05 a.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Yes, I support that too. What I hope will happen is that we will pass all of the non-controversial clauses very rapidly, and then I agree with Ms. Harder, if that means that we require more time to focus on the amendments. After all, at five o'clock tonight everything's deemed put and read anyway. There's no chance of that, and I don't want to restrict anybody from having their say on their amendments, so I would support waiving or relaxing that five-minute requirement when we get to clause 42. On any other section, I don't think there are many other amendments. There may be on another section.
11:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
We're saying that the motion is that the chair may limit debate on each clause and amendment to a maximum of five minutes per party, per clause. Would that work for you, Ms. Harder?
11:10 a.m.
Conservative
Rachael Thomas Conservative Lethbridge, AB
No. That leaves it more open than I think we want.
I would state it this way: the chair may limit debate on each clause to a maximum of five minutes per party per clause, except for clause 42, where the limit would be five minutes per amendment per party.
Mr. Chair, the exception is only made for clause 42.
11:10 a.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Yes, I think even that's too restrictive.
As I say, I think we're going to go through this very quickly. Then when we get to clause 42, I don't want to limit us to five minutes on an amendment. That's where the sensitivity is.
I think there's goodwill on all sides here to understand the amendments and if there are improvements to be made. I would not suggest we restrict that to five minutes. I think a person can make a motion to move on at any time if it looks deleterious.
I think we should have a full discussion on clause 42. I still think we'll finish this in lots of time.
11:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
We have a motion by Ms. Harder to limit the amendments to five minutes. I will have to deal with that motion.
11:10 a.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I would move a friendly amendment to that motion. I wonder if Ms. Harder would consider extending the five minutes to, say, no more than 15 minutes per amendment per party. I don't think it will take this long, but just so we have lots of time.
It may prove enough, but I think five minutes is a little short to talk about an amendment and 15 minutes may be too long. Maybe it could be 10 minutes. I just want each party to be able to speak to their amendment and have a discussion on that amendment.
11:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
With this motion, the chair may limit debate. I think we could go to 10 minutes if the party discussing it needs to discuss it. Would everybody agree to allow the chair to proceed on that?
11:10 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bill Casey
That's only for clause 42, yes.
All right. We'll do that. Thank you very much.
We have to consider your motion withdrawn, then. We're going to adopt this approach: it will be 10 minutes, and it's up to the chair. Does that work on amendments?