Evidence of meeting #128 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was rcmp.
A video is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
Hamilton Centre, NDP
Oh, how kind. That gives me an opportunity to raise the issue I raised with you earlier, Chair, if I may.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We will bring that up at the end, but we will be leaving at 1 o'clock exactly.
Does anyone else want to go on with questions for this witness?
Thank you very much for coming, Mr. Motz. We appreciate it, and we will be continuing our study. It's great to have you here today bringing up this important subject.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Mr. Christopherson just asked if we could go back to committee business for a couple of minutes, if it's okay with members of the committee.
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We will be leaving at 1 o'clock, though, because another committee is coming in.
October 30th, 2018 / 12:55 p.m.
Liberal
12:55 p.m.
Hamilton Centre, NDP
Well, it has to do with the public meeting. I'm in your hands. It's no big secret. I'm good in public. I'm more worried about the time than anything else.
12:55 p.m.
Hamilton Centre, NDP
Here's the thing, if I can jump right in, Chair. I do apologize for not being here right at the top to deal with this.
We're bringing in Mr. Johnston as a result of the announcement today by the government. That's a good thing. But I have to tell you, Chair, we need the minister here. If this were legislation—which it's not because the government ran out of time—we would have the minister here to introduce the legislation, and then we would go from there.
This way, we're putting the cart in front of the horse, in that we're not dealing with the fundamental announcement that leads to why that person has a new appointment.
Could I ask the committee, without increasing time or anything, to agree that the minister should be here with Mr. Johnston to explain the commission, and then logic would have it that we could talk about the person who's actually being appointed the commissioner?
Could we do that, colleagues?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
We can ask. Mr. Christopherson did come over beforehand and did ask. I said I would bring that matter forward. I don't have the minister's calendar, and the parliamentary secretary—
12:55 p.m.
Hamilton Centre, NDP
Could we get the government members to agree, in principle, that the minister should be here, as if this were legislation, because it's brand new?
12:55 p.m.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
It's brand new, and I take your point, but on issues of appointments we haven't brought in the minister before. It's not something we've done in the past.
12:55 p.m.
Hamilton Centre, NDP
It's a brand new entity. It's brand new.
If this were legislation, the minister would be here as a matter of course, but you guys so mismanaged your file on democratic reform that you ran out of time and now you have to do it by edict. At the very least, the committee should have an opportunity to talk about it, given how much time we spent on our report, the very report the minister seems to have conveniently ignored and run roughshod over.
We are ticked about this, and we at least need an opportunity to talk about the structure that's being brought in unilaterally. The only way we can do that is to respectfully ask the minister to please come, along with her appointee.
1 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Thanks, David.
I'm sorry. We have to go. There is a very important group coming in here. We'll have to continue this discussion.
