Evidence of meeting #62 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Nepean—Carleton, ON
The matter regarding Elections Canada and the veiled voting is already authorized to be dealt with. You have a motion that has been passed by this committee. That motion continues to exist. Nothing has interrupted that motion, so we await the clerk....The committee has instructed the chair and the clerk to go out and secure witnesses for those hearings.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
In fact, Mr. Poilievre, you are totally correct, but for the chairman to call a committee meeting, I would need 48 hours' notice. Ultimately, I'm asking the committee if they would like to give me some slack on that so we can move this thing forward.
I will call the committee meeting back on Thursday to meet with Mr. Mayrand. You will get a notice, hopefully later today or early tomorrow, so that you know that Mr. Mayrand is available and at what time. That's how we'll deal with the second matter.
Can we now proceed quickly? I'm about to adjourn the meeting.
On a point of order, Mr. Proulx.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
On a point of order, I simply wanted to understand. A little while ago, I thought you had reacted because we didn't have an agreement that you would call Mr. Mayrand.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
No, I didn't have an agreement about when we would meet. I was hoping we could meet tomorrow, which would require the permission of the committee to forgo the 48-hour notice. There is no question in my mind that the motion said that if Mr. Mayrand was not willing to reverse his decision, he would be called before this committee. I intend to do that, but it will be 48 hours from now because that's the provision.
I have a point of order over here, so I'll respect that first.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I have a point of order. May I suggest that the question Mr. Proulx has just raised is different from whether we have notice for a meeting or not. It is that the committee has not agreed on the witness list to conduct the study. So that is the point of order. The committee has not agreed on the witness list, and that includes the Commissioner of Elections Canada.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Right. Normal procedure for this committee is for me simply to request that witness lists be provided to the clerk. Generally we give a few hours to do that, and perhaps by tomorrow noon is suggested. Again, I'm assuming committee members are actually sincere about moving forward with this, so would it be impossible to ask members to submit their witness list before this night? I want to get that question answered.
5:30 p.m.
An hon. member
What witness list, Mr. Chair?
5:30 p.m.
An hon. member
This is putting the cart before the horse--
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
On a point of order, Chair, the motion was to examine the decision by Elections Canada. I don't understand what other witnesses we could call now. As you say, as long we have Mr. Mayrand here, that's where the decision came from.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
All right. Mr. Alghabra has suggested that he might have witnesses to call.
5:30 p.m.
An hon. member
We haven't agreed.
5:30 p.m.
An hon. member
It's not a good idea.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I appreciate that very much, but we have a member who clearly hasn't consulted with his party members and has mentioned a witness list.
I'll tell you what we're going to do.
5:30 p.m.
An hon. member
That's not the point.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Hold on, I have the floor. Order. I have the floor.
I'm going to suggest that if there is a witness list, you get it to me by 9 o'clock.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
You're not authorized to call any witnesses by the committee, whether it's the commissioner or not. Is that accurate?
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
I am qualified by the motion that was passed earlier this week, and I regret that you weren't here chairing that meeting.
5:30 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I was asking you a question. Are you authorized to invite any witnesses?
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Goodyear
Yes, I am. No, I'm authorized to invite Monsieur Mayrand, and I'm going to do that with a 48-hour notice.
5:30 p.m.
Conservative
5:30 p.m.
Bloc
Michel Guimond Bloc Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC
We are going to try to break this deadlock. The topic raised will allow us to come to a better understanding, I think. I'm going to ask for unanimous consent for the following motion. Basically, I'm going to move that you be dispensed from the 48 hours' notice provision; that the committee meet Thursday morning at 10 a.m. with Mr. Mayrand; that we hear the latter during an hour or an hour and a half and that after lunch we determine whether it would be advisable to call other witnesses.
Since the by-elections are going to be held next Monday, September 17, we will not have time to undertake an exhaustive study. While we are at it, is someone going to suggest that we go and see how they do it in Australia or in other provinces?
If there were unanimous consent for this motion we would hear Mr. Mayrand Thursday morning at 10 o'clock. At the end of his testimony or after lunch...