Health Committee on June 15th, 2017

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I'll take that as an amendment.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Okay. Thanks.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

I will take that as a friendly amendment so that the witnesses for each topic will be proportional to the House of Parliament percentage of seats.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

So the percentage of seats in the House of Commons.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Can I just add a friendly amendment here? After the part that talks about the committee meeting from Monday, September 11, 2017, to September 15, 2017, in regard to an act respecting cannabis and to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, I'd like us to say that it should be specifically from 8:30 to 10:30; 11:00 to 1:00; 2:00 to 4:00; and 4:30 to 6:30.

The rest of the paragraph would be the same all the way down until the word “task”, where we'd put a period and leave the motion at that—period.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Do you think we should have themes for the meetings?

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I don't mind having the themes. What I'm saying, Mr. Chair, is that I don't think any themes should be in the original motion, because it would be restrictive, and I would like to have a conversation. We could give it to you guys over the weekend and you could come back with something next week that we can actually talk about. We could pass a motion that's more generalized today so that it gives us some options and gives us some time to think about it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Gary, welcome to the committee. You're up.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Scarborough—Rouge Park, ON]

No, I'm fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Oliver, are you willing to go along with his friendly amendment?

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

No. I think the motion as I presented it, with the friendly amendment from Mr. Davies to change the witnesses to proportional to the House sitting percentages....

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Yes, and with the themes listed.

[John Oliver, Liberal, Oakville, ON]

Yes, with the themes listed, with the additional ones—I think we added six—and the flexibility of either two- or four-hour sittings, for the clerks to work out the best way for us to do that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I really think we should vote on the motion now as well. First of all, it's expressed with guidelines, and Colin is right that once it's passed...but we can always revisit it. Let's get this passed and have it written up. Then it can be sent to the committee members. If anybody has a serious objection to that motion as passed, they can certainly move a motion to amend it next week. We're not going to be acting on this right away, but I think it's important. We may not be here next week.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Exactly.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

That's why I would suggest that we vote on it now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

I have one more suggestion, maybe as a friendly amendment, John, if this is going to pass today.

After “the following guidelines” in your preamble in the motion, just say “but not limited to”, so we would have it in the motion that it's not limited.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

In reality, any subject can come up anyway.

Now we have a motion. All in favour of the motion as amended?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Chair—

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Was it accepted to say that?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bill Casey]

He nodded.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Did you accept...?