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

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

We wouldn't be masters of our committee anymore.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Anita.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

This is what they do in the U.K.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

The House over the committee, eh?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Next is committee documents.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I was going to go double majority.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Topic 3 is committee documents: allow non-committee members to receive documents from clerks of committees.

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

We can already do that by the committee.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay, I'll pass that one. We have to get rid of something.

Topic 4 is Governor in Council appointments: allow committees to study Governor in Council appointments prior to the appointment occurring.

Mr. Davies.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Oh, good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We have someone else.

Topic 5 is legislative committees: provide that legislation must be studied by a legislative committee. Standing committees would focus on policy matters and departmental estimates.

This was a fairly major recommendation. You have almost two sets of committees, one that does just the legislation on the topic, and then another that does all these other things. That's a major restructuring of Parliament. Is there a champion for this?

Okay, we'll pass that for right now.

Topic 6 is number of standing committees: reduce the number of standing committees.

Mr. Lukiwski.

Topic 7 is parliamentary secretaries: prohibit parliamentary secretaries from being committee members.

Mr. Davies.

Topic 8 is seating in committee: change the seating arrangement to have members around the table alternate between government and opposition members.

That's so we don't have this sort of adversarial—

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

I'm not going to defend that. I was just going to say that how we sit isn't defined in the Standing Orders. We sit the way we feel like it. I could go sit between Jamie and Don right now if I wanted to.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We can still recommend this.

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

Well, you could.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Did you say no to something, Anita? Oh, it was Ruby Sahota.

Topic 9 is track committee recommendations: create a mechanism for committees to track the recommendations they make in reports.

Mr. Davies.

Topic 10 is witnesses: create a prohibition against members moving motions or raising points of order during committee proceedings when witnesses are testifying.

Mr. Chan.

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

We're all passing, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

It will be discussed later.

Topic 22 is written request to convene a meeting: reduce the number of members who must sign the request to convene a meeting from four members to two, but the two members must be from different parties.

Okay, we'll pass that one.

Now we're on table 3 where the subject is debates.

Topic 1 is on curtailing debate: study the rules and usage of closure and time allocation.

Mr. Davies.

Topic 2 is the duration of speaking times for “controversial” and “non-controversial” bills: provide for longer debate periods on controversial bills, and shorter debate periods for non-controversial bills.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

If nobody gets up, it's not controversial and it ends, so we don't need to change the Standing Orders.

[An hon. member]

That's right, exactly.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Ruby.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Let's not let anything pass without....

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Pass.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes, pass, Ruby, yes.

Topic 3 is duration of speaking times (general): study both the length of speaking times—

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

I'll comment on that one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

—and the time provided for questions and comments. Suggestions for changes included making all speaking times five minutes, making all speaking times 15 minutes, with 10 minutes for speech and five minutes for questions and comments; and blending a member's speaking times with the time provided for questions and comments. Further, prohibit whips from splitting speaking times.

There are a whole bunch of different things in there. Does anyone want to discuss any of that?

Topic 4 is list for recognizing speakers: limit or cease the practice of using a list provided to the Speaker by the parties to determine who speaks next, provided the Speaker recognizes members in an equitable rotation.

Right now, when you have a debate on a topic, your whips line up who's speaking. Do you want to discuss this?

Mr. Lukiwski.