Evidence of meeting #1 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 40th 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.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Clerk of the Committee  Mr. James M. Latimer

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk of the Committee Mr. James M. Latimer

Honourable members of the committee, I see that we have quorum.

Pursuant to Standing Order 104(1), your first order of business is to elect a chair.

I am ready to receive motions to that effect. Are there any motions?

11:05 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Mr. Clerk, after careful consideration during many months off, over the course of the summer and the election, members of this side have considered this--

11:05 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

--and we nominate Mr. Joe Preston because of his vast experience in the chair.

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Lukiwski moves that Joe Preston be chair.

Are there other motions?

Seeing as there are no other motions, is the committee ready for the question?

The committee has heard the motion. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to.)

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

I declare Mr. Preston elected chair of the committee.

Before inviting Mr. Preston to take the chair, we may, if you wish, proceed to the election of vice-chairs. Is that the committee's wish?

11:05 a.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

The first vice-chair would be someone from the official opposition.

11:05 a.m.

Bloc

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

I nominate Mr. Marcel Proulx.

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Guimond moves that Mr. Proulx be elected First Vice-Chair.

Are there any other motions?

Seeing no other motions,

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to.)

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

I declare Mr. Proulx elected first vice-chair.

The standing order says that the second vice-chair must be from a party in opposition other than the official opposition.

11:05 a.m.

Liberal

Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC

I nominate Mr. Michel Guimond.

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Proulx moves that Mr. Guimond be elected Second Vice-Chair.

Are there any other motions?

Seeing as there are no other motions, is the committee ready for the question?

(Motion agreed to)

11:05 a.m.

The Clerk

I declare Monsieur Guimond elected second vice-chair.

I would invite Mr. Joe Preston to take the chair.

11:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Thank you.

The last time I didn't get to sit in the chair.

11:05 a.m.

An hon. member

You chose not to.

11:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

I'd like to thank you all for the wonderful opportunity to be your chair again. I can't seem to lose an election at this committee.

Many of you are friends and have served on this committee in the past, and there are some newcomers. I would like to start just as we may have started at the beginning of the last House, and as I'm sure this committee has started many other times, by explaining that this committee is the granddaddy of all the committees. It is the one that strikes the others. It is always run by consensus, and has in the past always worked well by consensus. I hope that, with the will of the members, that's how it will run again. I will be here to join in your conversations rather than to rule. I hope partisanship stays outside in the hall and that in here we will be people all willing to make this Parliament and Canada a little better place.

Thank you.

Why don't we do this? In the first meeting last time, with the consent of the committee....

I'm sorry, Mr. Guimond.

11:05 a.m.

Bloc

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

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

First of all, I would like to welcome to the committee my colleague from Beauharnois—Salaberry, Ms. Claude DeBellefeuille, who is replacing Ms. Picard. Ms. Picard served on this committee for many years and decided not to seek another term.

On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to congratulate you on your election, Mr. Chairman. Earlier, I jokingly said in English that you were well prepped to take on your duties as chair because you had five or six months to read the Standing Orders.

Seriously, though, I want to reassure all of my colleagues that I intend to co-operate with this committee that I have served on since 2000 in the hope that it will recapture the spirit that prevailed prior to last year, which as I'm sure we all agree, was very raucous. The past is the past. As my mother always said to me, there is no use crying over split milk. It's time to look ahead to the future.

Regardless, Mr. Chairman, if you scrupulously abide by the Standing Order of the House which govern our proceedings, if you act in a non-partisan, open manner—and we are confident that you will—, everything should go smoothly.

Again, congratulations and rest assured that I will cooperate with you to the fullest.

11:05 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Mr. Cuzner.

11:05 a.m.

Liberal

Rodger Cuzner Liberal Cape Breton—Canso, NS

Mr. Chairman, on behalf of the official opposition I'd like to congratulate you on your election.

Being a recent member, I first sat on this committee back in 2003 as the parliamentary secretary to the Prime Minister. The view was a little different from that side of the room. Nonetheless, I want to reiterate what Michel has said here. Our intention is to work on this committee and hopefully find consensus and develop a relationship among the committee that's conducive to Parliament. There are some early indications that this might even be possible. We'll certainly do our part from here.

11:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Mr. Lukiwski.

11:10 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

From the government side, Joe, thank you for being a calming and steadying influence on this side of the table for the last year or so. Congratulations to you on your selection and election as chair.

First, I want to introduce a couple of new members. We now have six members. Five members are sitting on this side of the table, and a couple of them are new. First, there is Ms. Kelly Block, who is from Saskatchewan. We have another Saskatchewan presence on this committee, newly elected this year. I'm sure Kelly will be a wonderful addition to this committee.

11:10 a.m.

Conservative

Kelly Block Conservative Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK

Thank you.

11:10 a.m.

Conservative

Tom Lukiwski Conservative Regina—Lumsden—Lake Centre, SK

As well, we have the deputy whip of our party, Mr. Harold Albrecht. Of course, we have our caucus chair, Mr. Lauzon. Mr. Scott Reid and I will be the two veterans of the committee.

On behalf of all government members, I first want to thank Michel and Rodger for their very kind words. Without question, and without assigning blame to anyone, last year's committee didn't end well. We all know that. I'm very encouraged to hear the words of Michel and Rodger. I want to underscore the fact that we completely support those words. We all know--at least the people who have been on this committee for many years know--that the purpose of this committee is to work on behalf of all parliamentarians to establish or change standing orders, and to work on matters that concern all parliamentarians, whether they relate to security or other issues that affect all of us.

I have always known that this committee is intended to be probably the least partisan of the 27 standing committees that we have in Parliament. I will give you our assurances, as well--although there will be times, I'm sure, when there will be differences of opinion. The intention of this government and of the members of this committee is to work as cooperatively as we possibly can and to actually get some work done on this committee. A failure occurred last year, and we don't intend to have that happen again, I'm sure.

Thank you very much for your kind words. You can count on us to work as cooperatively as we possibly can.

11:10 a.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Joe Preston

Thank you, Mr. Lukiwski.

Monsieur Godin.

11:10 a.m.

NDP

Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB

First off, Mr. Chairman, I want to congratulate you on your election. I will not even bother to joke that you are not familiar with the chair's duties. You did not find yourself in this position because you lack expertise.

Senior officials in the previous government wanted to do away with this committee. Let us hope that this will not come to pass. This will not stop the opposition from suggesting topics that the committee could discuss. The issues that we will raise in committee will need to be, and will be, debated. The Chair will need to be impartial, because it is the duty of the Chair to be non-partisan.

I appreciate you're saying that this committee is one of the most important committees in terms of how Parliament operates. The other committees concern themselves more with how the government and ministers operate and they debate matters raised by political parties. This committee deals with the operation of Parliament . I am saddened by recent events in Parliament and I hope that we can work together.

In a democratic system, we have a government party and an opposition. It is the duty of the opposition to draw the attention of citizens or the government to matters with which it disagrees. The Chair has a responsibility to ensure that these matters are debated. It is not the Chair's responsibility to silence a committee, as we saw last time around. I'm optimistic and I believe that we can engage in debate. Otherwise, we will have to live with the consequences.

I promise you that I will work hard to make this committee work, all the while with an eye to preserving democracy. The opposition must have the right to speak and to participate in the debates of this committee.

Once again, congratulations on your election.