Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Jan. 27th, 2009

[The Clerk]

Mr. Chair, through you to the committee, once the report has been concurred in by the House, as long as 48 hours' notice--or two sleeps--have been given for organization meetings, the other committees may organize. So if the House were to concur in the report today, the earliest that other committees could begin meeting, according to the Standing Orders, would be Thursday.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I understand, but all parties must agree in order for a committee to sit. We cannot hold meetings on our own.

[The Clerk]

The House, Mr. Chair, would have to concur in the report that you've presented to the House. At that point the membership becomes official. According to the standing order, the Clerk of the House will convene a meeting, giving at least 48 hours' notice, for the purpose of electing a chair.

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

For any or all committees?

[The Clerk]

It doesn't say all; within ten sitting days of the adoption of the report in the House, the committees must meet to elect a chair. The earliest they could begin meeting, if the report is concurred in today, would be Thursday.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Is any further clarification needed on that? We're okay with that?

Going back to Mr. Reid's motion of accepting the routine motions for this committee, did I have a seconder for that?

[The Clerk]

You don't need a seconder for that.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

On future business, I'll go with Michel and then Tom.

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

I haven't confirmed this with my colleagues from the other parties, but during the brief period of time that we sat in late November and early December, we agreed to move forward with certain items of business, in particular the question of forms and the creation of a subcommittee on gifts in conjunction with the work of the ethics commissioner.

According to the notes prepared for us by the Library of Parliament, technically, we would need to approve these decisions once again. Could we move a general motion calling on the committee to endorse the decisions made during meetings held in late November and early December, even it we have to specify the exact dates? A few weeks ago, we agreed to set up a subcommittee on gifts and we agreed on the form. Do you really want to go over all of this again?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Is there any discussion on that?

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

I think procedurally it might make sense to handle the two things as two separate motions, one to deal with the forms and one to deal with the subcommittee, I would suggest.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I know it would make Madam Dawson pretty happy.

Mr. Lukiwski.

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

I was just going to make a suggestion. Since at our last sitting we had, as a committee, approved the report by Madam Dawson, I was going to make a motion that we approve it again. It has nothing to do with the subcommittee on gifts. We did approve, as a committee, the report from Madam Dawson, so I would like to move that we approve that once more.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Monsieur Proulx.

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

I was under the impression that what we had done, properly and legally, prior to the prorogation remained and stayed. But I'm informed that's not the case.

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

No. We didn't report it to the House.

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

So it didn't get reported to the House.

Okay. I was under the impression that we had.

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

So maybe my motion should be that we approve the report and report it to the House.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Is there any further discussion?

Monsieur Godin.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Mr. Chair, are we talking about the steering committee report? We are? One person is saying yes, and another is saying no.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

It was a report. We accepted the report from Ms. Dawson on her use of the new disclosure statement forms, but we did not have time to report it to the House before prorogation, so it went away. We are asking if we can bring it back and report it to the House.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Only that item?

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

And the matter of creating a subcommittee on gifts.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I've heard that we're asking to do those as two separate things. So let's do them that way if possible. Let's talk about the report from Ms. Dawson first and the acceptance of the disclosure forms. She'll be quite pleased if we get that through and reported to the House so she can use the forms.

Is there further discussion on that motion?

All in favour of accepting the report on the draft disclosure forms and reporting it to the House?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Mr. Guimond.