Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 24th, 2018

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Oh, I see. It's my lack of gravitas that—

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Well, if you had a more beautiful riding, you could—

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

I'm not going there, Chair. Them's fightin' words. You know that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

All right, I'll present the report. I'll briefly outline the major changes, not all the technical points, and then leave it for them to ask questions of us. It's one hour.

The other thing that we've agreed to do is come back to this indigenous language study on Thursday.

Is that what you want to do for one hour?

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Are you talking about doing it on Thursday, May 31?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes, next week on May 31.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

By definition, if we do it then, we have to slot in a further time, somewhere in June, perhaps.

I'm assuming you need a further seven days after that, but we haven't completed the process of giving you, Andre, the entire first draft to work on, so you have partly a first draft and partly a second draft.

I'm positive we're going to need a second meeting. Can we slot that one in as well? Is it reasonable to say May 31 and then come back on June 7, or is that not enough time?

[Andre Barnes, Committee Researcher]

It would frankly depend on the next suggested changes. It could well be quick.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Okay.

Obviously my concern is that we're going to face a point at which we won't be able to submit it, because it has to go out to translation, and we're going to do a line-by-line at some point, and I'm worried. I don't want us to slide past the end of our session.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Could it be May 31 and June 7, for one hour in each of those meetings?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Could we try doing that? That would seem reasonable to me.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Does that make sense?

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

I just want to make sure it's okay with our analyst.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

The question for us in that scenario is.... I know it's something in which you can't foresee what could potentially be, but could foresee, I guess, the greater amount of what you might expect or of what there could potentially be. Would this hour still leave you enough time? Do you believe that it likely would?

[Andre Barnes]

Yes.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I have one other very minor thing, and this is just a personal request, not for any discussion right now, but for people to get back to me on personally.

I am vice-chair of the Conference of Parliamentarians of the Arctic Region. Every Arctic country except ours does electronic voting. We've discussed it a bit in examining the Standing Orders, but I'd like people to get back to me personally—this is my personal request—if you have any interest in our discussing this.

I don't want to discuss it now; just get back to me.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

You're talking about the House and not general elections, right?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes, just for the House.

[Nathan Cullen, NDP, Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC]

Yes, we've talked about it, right, Ruby?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Don't discuss it now, but get back to me if you have any interest, and then I'll pursue it somehow.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Can I ask one more question about this? So every country—

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Northern country, polar country....

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Does that include the United States?