Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 6th, 2006

[The Clerk of the Committee]

Good morning. My name is Lucile McGregor, and I'm the clerk of the committee.

Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.

You may want to refer to the agenda that was circulated to you.

We're going to begin with the election of the chair.

Standing Order 106(2) provides for the following:[...] each standing or special committee shall elect a Chair and two Vice-Chairs, of whom the Chair shall be a Member of the government party, the first Vice-Chair shall be a Member of the Official Opposition, and the second Vice-Chair shall be a Member of an opposition party other than the Official Opposition party.

I am ready to accept motions for the election of the chair.

Mr. Reid.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I nominate Gary Goodyear.

[The Clerk]

Are there any other nominations?

As there are no other nominations, I declare Mr. Goodyear elected chair of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

Before inviting Mr. Goodyear to take the chair, we'll proceed to the election of the vice-chairs.

Standing Order 106(2) stipulates that the first vice-chair shall be a member of the official opposition and the second vice-chair a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

I am now ready to accept nominations for the first vice-chair.

Mr. Owen.

[Stephen Owen, Liberal, Vancouver Quadra, BC]

I nominate Marcel Proulx.

[The Clerk]

Are there any other nominations?

I declare nominations closed. As there are no other candidates, I declare Mr. Proulx elected vice-chair of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

We now have a motion, if a member wants to move one, for vice-chair from a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.

Madame Picard.

[Pauline Picard, Bloc, Drummond, QC]

I nominate Michel Guimond.

[The Clerk]

Are there any other nominations?

As there are no other nominations, I declare Michel Guimond elected Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs.

I now invite Mr. Goodyear to take his place as chair of the committee.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I look forward to a very positive and productive committee.

With the unanimous consent of the members, I'd like to move on to routine motions. Are there any objections to that? No? Perfect.

On the first matter, the services of analysts from the Library of Parliament, can I have a mover to adopt that motion?

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

I so move.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you, Mr. Proulx.

The second matter is the motion to establish a subcommittee on agenda and procedure.

[Tom Lukiwski, Conservative, Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK]

I so move.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much.

Moving right along, it's been suggested by the clerk that I read this motion on the striking committee: that the four whips be delegated the duty to act as the striking committee, pursuant to Standing Orders 104, 113, and 114, and that they be authorized to present directly to the chair in a report, signed by all four whips or their representatives, their unanimous recommendations for presentation to the House on behalf of this committee.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

I so move.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much, Mr. Proulx.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

I'm just wondering, are we coming back to these for a vote, or are we regarding these as adopted at this point? Are we going to return to these for adoption, or are we counting these as adopted as we go through them? I don't know what's going on here.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

It is my understanding that we can have a discussion.

[Jay Hill, Conservative, Prince George—Peace River, BC]

My thought was that perhaps we could just go through them all, Mr. Chair, with the agreement of all committee members. We could just vote on all of them at once at the end, after we discuss each one as we go through if anybody has any concerns about any of them. We could dispense with them all at once.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

I'll accept a mover, and if there is any discussion we could go back to discussing each motion. Is that acceptable? Okay.

On to motion number 4: to receive and publish evidence in the absence of a quorum. Is there a mover?

[An hon. member]

I so move.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Motion number 5 is payment of witnesses' travel and living expenses. Mr. Lukiwski moves that.

The next motion is distribution of documents with translation. Mr. Proulx moves that.

Working meals. Do we want to discuss this?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, ON]

That's why I asked about how we were doing these things. Are we going to wait until the end and come back and discuss them?

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

I think we'll come back. We'll get them all moved onto the record and then we'll come back and discuss those that we need to discuss and then vote on them all.

Working meals--Mr. Preston moves that.

In camera meeting transcripts.

[An hon. member]

I'll move that.

[The Acting Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

The setting up of a subcommittee on private members' business.