Evidence of meeting #7 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 sitting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
It should be “That minutes of in camera meetings should, with the unanimous consent of the committee, reflect the results...”.
The Clerk
Then the last paragraph would be “That minutes of in camera meetings should, with the unanimous consent of the committee, reflect the results of all votes taken”, etc.
The Clerk
“That minutes of in camera meetings should, with the unanimous consent of the committee, reflect the results of all votes taken by the committee while in camera”, etc.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Maybe I understand wrong. It sounds to me like the committee votes, and only by unanimous consent do the in camera motions end up public. Whoa, that's not going to cut it, because that leaves us exactly where we were before. The government at will can decide what will be made public and what won't, unless I'm misunderstanding, in which case, help me.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I don't think it is necessarily appropriate for every vote in camera to be listed. No, the question is if your objective is to have the motions that were defeated appear in Hansard. Is that your objective?
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
It is that and the ability to speak to them. If I make a motion in camera I'd like the ability to walk outside the room and say that I made that motion and it failed. Right now, if I understand correctly, it takes a unanimous vote of the committee to grant me that right. That's not much different from where we were with the Tories. If the government decides nothing is coming out and there's nothing I can do about it, I'm no further ahead than I was under the old rules. Either I have that right to move a motion, have it recorded in Hansard, and I can talk about it publicly, or I don't. Government maintaining whether I have that right is no different from being denied that right in the last Parliament, save and except by the whim of the government.
It defeats the purpose and it leaves the government in total control over what goes public. My whole point is to remove the government control by saying motions that are in order are allowed to be reported in Hansard and talked about publicly. That's all.
The real politics of it is this. Let's put the cards on the table. Right now the government has the right, no matter what motion comes in, to sit back and almost pay no attention whatsoever. When all the talking is done, they can vote the motion down, and no matter what the politics of it, they never have to defend that they exercised their majority to quash a motion. They never have to defend it because it's never written down and it's against the rules to talk about it.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, David, we're basically at time, and we're going to have to proceed in one of two ways. We could carry on later, or seeing as we have co-operated with almost everything in the motion, we could vote on everything so far—
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
No, I don't want to—no, we're close here. Things are good. I see the government and I'm getting a sense they're still listening and understanding that is an argument. A little time for the government to review that would be helpful. I'm quite prepared to adjourn now and pick this up at the next opportunity we have.
I'd ask the government to think about this last piece, if you would.