Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 15th, 2017

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I do not feel that I need to share that information at this time.

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

We're just curious, since it's open and transparent. I'm just taking from your remarks that it's open and transparent.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I believe the witness has answered now.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I didn't talk about that at all in my opening comments.

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

So how do we make a judgment going forward as to whether this candidate is the right one if we don't have confidence in the process to get that person here?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

I believe you should have confidence in the process, and I have confidence in the members of this committee to ask tough questions.

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

I just need to know who's on that search committee, if you don't mind.

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Chair, through you, I will remind the member that I think he's a hard-working member. I have confidence that he will ask tough questions. I had the opportunity to meet a member of his team. She was fabulous, and I hope to be able to connect with her. I'm sure his team only reflects his hard work. I'm sure he will make Canadians proud with the level of questions that he asks the nominated Clerk, and that's why it's important that the Clerk be present.

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

Thank you. I appreciate those kind words, and I have mutual respect for you as well.

But there is a bit of frustration on our side regarding the rush to move this forward. Can you tell us if the Speaker of the House of Commons was consulted on this decision before it was made public?

[Bardish Chagger, Liberal, Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Chair, I think it's important that I address the Standing Orders. I know how much time was used on this debate within this committee. I know that members were very interested in this topic, and that's why I felt that I owed it to all committee members to be present, and that's why I came here with undivided attention to be available to committee members, to talk about the Standing Orders, because I really do appreciate the work that members have been doing.

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

Minister, respectfully, I do too, but also the Clerk and the Speaker are the parties in the chamber.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

On a point of order, I think so much repetition has gone on here. The minister has answered. If we'd like to get back to the point of the Standing Orders, it would be appreciated.

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

Mr. Chair, as we know, the Speaker and—

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Let Ms. Sahota have her say.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

We need to get back to the relevant matter at hand, Mr. Chair, and the relevant matter is the Standing Orders.

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

If we're talking about the Standing Orders, the guardians of those Standing Orders are the Clerk and the Speaker.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

We'll have an opportunity to question the Clerk next on that, but right now we're wasting our time on the matter at hand.

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

I need to know about the process first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Hold it. Hold it.

On point of order, Ms. Tassi, and then Mr. Richards.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Mr. Chair, we're getting to the point where I feel that the witness is being badgered. This point has been made. She has graciously responded to questions that are outside the topic of today, and now there have been repeated questions over and over again, and a response that's somewhat unsatisfactory to her response. She's been kind enough to enter into discussion and respond to questions that are far outside what we came here for today.

I'm going to ask you, Mr. Chair, to redirect all members, when they're asking questions from here on in, to ask the questions on the topic that we came here to talk about today, which is the Standing Orders.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Sorry, there are only two minutes left and we have two more speakers on the point of order, Mr. Richards and Mr. Dubé.

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

Mr. Chair, when I hear about this idea of badgering someone, we have members of the government trying to prevent opposition members from asking questions that are relevant to the subject matter at hand, despite whether or not they think they're relevant, and they're continually with points of order trying to shut down questions that are important and very germane to a decision that this committee has to make and very helpful to the committee. We're unfortunately not getting responses, but there certainly are a number of questions, and Mr. Schmale is asking them in a very respectful manner. It is really quite unfortunate that the government is trying to shut down and prevent that opportunity for the opposition to ask those questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Dubé, there's about one minute left in the minister's appearance.

[Matthew Dubé, NDP, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

I just want to raise quickly that the partisan fighting between these two parties has probably cut away the few minutes I would have had with the minister, so I think that's worth pointing out in the spirit of collegiality and wanting to make Parliament work better.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Schmale, you have a little bit left.