Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 8th, 2016

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

In this case, it's simply a list of what happened in the debate in the House of Commons anyway.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Let me get back to the list.

Ginette.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

My only question is, if we have unanimous consent that there are some items here that we all agree on, why do we need to find a champion for them? If there are some items that we all agree on, can't we just say, okay, it's agreed?

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

If we all champion it, that makes it really easy, doesn't it?

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

The committee is the champion.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Davies.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Chair, I'm just here covering for Mr. Christopherson, so forgive my newness to this.

My concern is if we haven't gone back to our caucuses yet to get their feelings on this, it almost appears to me to be putting the cart before the horse. It's hard for me to say to drop something completely or that we'll champion it when I haven't had a chance to get feedback from my caucus. I'm just wondering if anybody else has that—

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I have no problem with somebody coming back later and saying, “I'm going to champion this.”

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Chan.

[Arnold Chan, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I'll do a mind-meld with David. There's nothing that commits you to a particular position. You can still come back and say.... The question is, if we think it's a stupid idea, let's just punt it, right?

To deal with the question that Ginette raised, again, I think the key for us is that we're just trying to cull this. The only thing I would say is that even if we all champion a particular idea, there is sometimes interoperability between the standing orders that we do have to think through. Even if there's a particular idea that we all agree is a great idea, we have to make sure that we've thought through its broader implications for its impact on all the other standing orders. We could say it's good, but I think we'd still have to look at it as a total package in the end, right?

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Absolutely, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Davies, and then Mr. Graham.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'd say there are a couple of different ways that this could work. One way is to go through it and identify those issues that we all agree should be punted. That culls down the list.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Effectively, you look through it and ask if anybody will sponsor it. If it's no, off it goes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Yes.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

It's the same idea.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

As I heard Ms. Petitpas Taylor say it, the other way is we could identify those things that we all know are worthy of further consideration, of serious consideration.

The difference between those two is that with the second, the latter, you'd end up having a far shorter list. You might end up with the actual 10 or 20 standing order proposals that are serious and that you really want to consider. The other way is that we just identify the ones that we agree should be gone.

A lot of these, I think, will require further consideration. I'm in your hands.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I think you made a good suggestion. We have to check with our caucuses, too, before we decide anything.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I think we have an opportunity to make larger long-term changes, so having a discussion on each item would be helpful for the long term, I think.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Do you want to start on the list, then?

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

You mean to see how it goes and see what happens?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll try a couple and see how it goes and whether we all agree or all disagree.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Some of the changes in here don't necessarily affect the standing orders, so how do we deal with that? The very first item on the list says to make use of a standing order. You don't make a standing order to make use of a standing order. The standing order is already there. I'm not sure how to approach....

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I think anything positive for Parliament, PROC can deal with.