Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Oct. 17th, 2018

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

It's just that we always want to be aware that we're dealing with taxpayer dollars, that we always have an eye to the money we spend.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Bittle, you said this reduces ones for people with disabilities?

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

If we're ready, we'll vote on CPC-137.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 300 agreed to)

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I need to correct the record. I misspoke earlier when I made a comment that it was Scott Simms who made the point of order. It wasn't. It was a different Liberal Scott. It was Scott Andrews who was a Liberal at the time.

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

That changes my vote.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I would like the record to reflect that. I would not want to leave this committee with incorrect information.

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

That's an important distinction.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

You said Scott Andrews was a Liberal at the time. Can you refresh our memory as to what happened?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

No, I will not be going down that path.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I was just trying to remember. I wasn't here at the time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I'm sure Mr. Simms will appreciate this because his staff is here, and we'll pass that on to him.

There are no amendments from clauses 301 to 307.

(Clauses 301 to 307 inclusive agreed to)

(On clause 308)

It looks as though there's one amendment, CPC-138.

Mr. Nater.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

This would reduce the disclosure threshold from $500 to $200 and would align it with what we have in our own conflict of interest code as parliamentarians, which is at $200. It aligns the two, and I think it makes sense. I don't think anyone should be accepting gifts of significant value anyway during an election period, so I think putting it at $200 would be a reasonable amount.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I think PROC had some debate about that related to the conflict of interest—not that this is relevant—whether the $200 was enough or not. I can't remember the details so I'll leave that out.

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

I think some start at $800.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Is there debate on CPC-138 on changing the limit from $500 down to $200?

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I would like to provide a little more clarity on that.

Apparently at the beginning of this Parliament that was reduced to $200 for the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons and PROC had made that recommendation.

It would be consistent with the decision that was taken at that time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll vote on CPC-138.

(Amendment negatived [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 308 agreed to on division)

(Clauses 309 to 319 inclusive agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We're going into clause 320. There are four CPC amendments.

[Chris Bittle, Liberal, St. Catharines, ON]

Before we get into a series of clauses, maybe now is a good time to break.

You can stick around. Ruby, you'll be more than happy to speak.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I thought we were going until nine o'clock.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Do you not want to stay?

[Bernadette Jordan, Liberal, South Shore—St. Margarets, NS]

I believe the Conservative Party.... We're unable to stay past seven o'clock tonight.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Is that true?

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

Why don't we have a motion to adjourn, suspend or something like that, and see how people vote?