Health Committee on May 28th, 2021

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Ms. O'Connell on a point of order, please go ahead.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Sorry, Mr. Chair, this is a technical point. The member opposite pointed out that she is also speaking in reference to a livestream that she's running right now. However, it's my understanding that procedurally comments should be going through the chair.

In terms of relevance, she's not a speaking about the motion at hand. Her motion would have limited the PMPRB study to one day instead of two, which is what we agreed to. We really want to get to that study next week. Unfortunately, the member opposite isn't speaking to the motion—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I have point of order, Chair.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

—that she moved. The motion on the table was taking a meeting away from the study of PMPRB, which is what we've been fighting for.

I just want the comments to go through the chair on that.

Thank you.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I have a point of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you, Ms. O'Connell. We are getting into debate.

Ms. Rempel Garner, go ahead on the same point of order.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'm good, Chair. I'll just continue.

Again, Chair, what just happened there was an example of the Liberals filibustering us. What they're hoping is that the clock will get to 6:30, and we can't vote on this motion. I'll get to the motion in a second. I think anybody who is watching would see what's happening here.

There are a bunch of Liberals that are lined up to speak on this motion. I'm about to do something that is going to let me make sure that we get the motion passed. The motion that I'm speaking to today is in order for the standing committee to proceed. We have to have something called programming. Anybody who's watching this would understand that, if you're scheduling meetings out, you have to have a schedule of orders. In the House of Commons standing committees, there are rules on how that happens. You have to pass a motion to get that done.

The opposition parties work together to get meetings on the schedule on a bunch of topics really important to Canadians, first of all, the government's response to COVID. There are so many things that we need to be talking about like vaccine delivery schedules, second dosing schedules, this big report that came out yesterday with regard to border measures and the quarantine hotels. There are a lot of things. We want meetings on them.

There's also another issue that is really important to Canadians that my colleague from the Bloc Québécois has been supporting and pushing, as well as my colleague from the NDP. It's called the PMPRB. People will be watching this and be going, “Well, what's that?” It relates to drug prices. My colleague from the Bloc Québécois had a study on this. We haven't had meetings scheduled on this in quite some time.

[Sonia Sidhu, Liberal, Brampton South, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair, can you clarify with the clerk if the member can livestream when the committee meeting is happening?

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

You're on mute, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

I'm sorry.

I will in fact ask the clerk, is it appropriate to livestream proceedings from the House on Facebook?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jean-François Pagé]

That's a good question. Let me check.

It's webcast.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

Yes, it's webcast.

It's through the regular webkey.

[The Clerk]

Let me get back to you on that in two minutes. I'm not sure of the answer.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Thank you.

I would suggest that Ms. Rempel Garner speak to the committee and not to the audience.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

I'm speaking to you, Chair; I'm speaking through you.

What's happening here is that the Liberals now are trying to shut down—

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Mr. Chair, on a point of order—

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

—getting democracy sent out. They're trying to shut down what I'm doing right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Ms. O'Connell has a point of order.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

They don't want anybody in Canada to see this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Ms. O'Connell is on a point of order.

[Michelle Rempel, Conservative, Calgary Nose Hill, AB]

They don't want you to see their dirty little secrets behind—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Ms. O'Connell has the floor on a point of order.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

There are no secrets here. The member opposite frankly is lying. Her own motion actually would reduce the PMPRB study that we already agreed to.

My point of order, though, Mr. Chair, is that we should suspend until we get the answer to Ms. Sidhu's question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ron McKinnon]

Mr. Clerk, do we have any kind of timeline for when you might get an answer on this.