Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 5th, 2007

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

My final request, colleagues, is that we support a 24-hour notice of amendments before clause-by-clause. Clause-by-clause is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, and all amendments would therefore need to be in by 11 a.m. on Monday. Is that acceptable? Those are standard procedures, but I just want confirmation. Is a 24-hour notice acceptable?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Colleagues, since we did adopt the steering committee's recommendation, we are now scheduled here to proceed with Mr. Guimond.

Mr. Guimond, everybody has the motion in front of them. Thank you.

Mr. Guimond, I'll offer you the floor.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I had a meeting this morning with the clerk and he suggested two changes for clarification. I don't know what the procedure is here and whether I must present an amendment.

On the wording of Standing Order 31.1(1), I would change it to:

Only once a week, pursuant to Standing Order 31, the Speaker may recognize

The independent member may not want to ask a question.

My colleague Mr. Proulx suggests another clarification, in accordance with the French version: the Speaker may recognize one of the independent members

The first one is for Standing Order 31, the declaration; the second one is for the question.

What is it, Lucienne?

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

I want to know what change you are making to the present Standing Order.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

My motion clarifies the situation, because at the present time, it is at the discretion of the Speaker. The Speaker has created precedents. An independent member can virtually never ask questions and virtually never be present, but an independent member who is always present will be able to ask more questions if he or she is a member of a caucus. This is why I have suggested this change, which was the object of a discussion. It was not a decision-making body, but when we had other problems to discuss with regard to the whips, my whip colleagues were made aware of the problem.

If members of a given political allegiance, who belong to one of the 21 or 26 parties recognized by Elections Canada... I will give you an example. Let us suppose that the Green Party sees its leader and two other members elected. The Standing Orders provide that the members of a party with fewer than 12 members are considered to be independents. Therefore, it is possible to be an independent member but to belong to a given banner. Here is Mr. Hill's concern. If, let us say, the two other independent colleagues of the leader of the Green Party allow him or her to put questions in their name, the leader is free to do so and would not fall under the one question or one statement per week limit.

This explains the second element, which I introduced at Mr. Hill's request:

For the purposes of Standing Order 31.1(1), members of political parties not officially recognized in the House are not considered independent members.

They would therefore have that right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Merci.

Colleagues, my apologizes, I'd like to introduce our witnesses this morning. We have the Clerk of the House of Commons and the deputy clerk.

Madam, would you kindly introduce yourself and your guest this morning? Then we'll move to questions.

[Audrey O'Brien, Clerk of the House]

My name is Audrey O'Brien. I'm the Clerk of the House.

I am accompanied by Mr. Marc Bosc, deputy Clerk of the House of Commons. We are here to answer your questions, if you have any.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lukiwski, you're first, and then Madam Redman.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to make sure I understand in my own mind what Monsieur Guimond is proposing.

If I'm right, I think I agree with what you're saying. You're saying that currently--let's use exact terms--we have three independent members: Madame Thibault, Monsieur Comuzzi, and Monsieur Arthur. The way it's been working, if I understand it correctly, is that when you do the math and figure out the allocation, it allows for one question per independent per week. But since normally Monsieur Comuzzi and Monsieur Arthur have not been requesting questions, the Speaker has been allocating their questions to Madame Thibault. So she ends up sometimes getting three times as many questions as one would think.

What you're suggesting, then, is that the Standing Orders be changed so that under the current situation Madame Thibault or any member would only get one question every three weeks, right? You can't bundle the questions.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Not every three weeks, every week.

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

Every week, one question. Okay. Each of the three independents would get one question per week?

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Yes.

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

Each independent member is entitled to one question per week. That is what this says.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

No, not each independent member. That is not what is says.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

It says: “Once a week, [...] may recognize an independent member [...].“

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

It only says “an“?

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

Yes. Once a week.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Madam Thibault is entitled to a question once every three weeks.

[Lucienne Robillard, Liberal, Westmount—Ville-Marie, QC]

No.

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

No, that is not what we wanted to do.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Goodyear]

Order, please.

[Audrey O'Brien]

If I may, Mr. Chair, this has been the subject of some discussion in the Speaker's office and with Monsieur Guimond. I think Mr. Lukiwski describes the situation accurately, that is to say for purposes of the Speaker's making a decision on how many people, how many times anyone gets recognized. He allots a certain number of questions to independents. And because two of the independents are not availing themselves of that, then one of them, Madame Thibault, ends up with a disproportionate amount.

As I understand it, what this would do is give directions to the Speaker on how to deal with independent members, and it would say that on any given week you get to give one question to one independent member.

[An hon. member]

So it could be to Madame Thibault every week.