Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Jan. 30th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Richards.

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

Just to get some clarification here, are you moving a motion? Is a motion being moved here, or are we being asked for unanimous consent?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I'm asking for unanimous consent, yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Mr. Gerretsen is asking for unanimous consent.

He has read it out and we do have simultaneous translation. What I can do is read it out again and try to go as slowly as possible. If at the end of that we do have unanimous consent, we can go from there.

Mr. Brassard.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Just as a clarification through you, Madam Chair, to Mr. Gerretsen, is he asking for consent because the convention around here is to ask for consent? We need clarification on what specifically he is trying to do here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I am putting forward a motion asking for unanimous consent from the floor, as opposed to.... I'm putting forward this motion for unanimous consent of the committee. I apologize that I didn't provide it in advance. The committee hadn't officially been formed, with a chair, until moments ago, so it would have been more difficult to do that.

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

Can I ask for further clarification on that?

Obviously, in the last Parliament it was a fairly well-established precedent in this committee—and you would remember this, Madam Chair, having been on the committee through this as well—that we would change Standing Orders only by unanimous consent.

Is that the reason Mr. Gerretsen is putting this forward? Is it because of that established precedent that he is seeking unanimous consent to follow that? What is the purpose of the unanimous consent?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I put forward the motion hoping that we could get unanimous—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Just a minute—

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

Sorry.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

We have a wonderful clerk already.

As we want to make sure that the ground rules we lay are very clear on this committee, I can understand why clarification is being sought on the matter.

My understanding at this point is that Mr. Gerretsen just intends to move this motion, since it is our first meeting, at this point. It's not the regular precedent that would be used, with the notice, but he is just moving this from the floor.

If there is debate on the matter.... I know Mr. Richards is bringing up the unanimous consent issue, which is something we discussed in the last Parliament. This is a new Parliament, so this committee is free to decide how it moves on that matter.

At this point, what I suggest is that the motion has been moved. I will read the motion slowly into the record again. We have the translation, and at that point, we can start discussing the motion once it's been moved.

Mr. Richards.

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

On a point of order, what I was trying to understand or seek was some clarification as to how you would see the procedure working here, and I appreciate your efforts to give clarification. Obviously Mr. Gerretsen indicated that he was moving this by consent, which would indicate that it's something other than just putting a motion forward. My assumption is that he was doing so based on the precedent that we set in the last Parliament, that Standing Orders would be changed only by consent. I'm just trying to get clarification from him as to the reason he is moving it that way. Is that, in fact, the reason—the precedent that we change the Standing Orders only by consent, or...?

I am asking, through you, if you can ask Mr. Gerretsen to give us some clarification on the reason he has moved it in such a way.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I will ask what the intention was. I think we all became used to certain practices in the last Parliament, but I just want to remind the committee that at this point we can move forward with a practice that we wish to adopt in this committee.

I will give Mr. Gerretsen the floor if he would like to clarify.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I was not going off anything that happened in the previous session of Parliament. I was just observant of the fact that in the Canada-China committee the opportunity to have a third vice-chair was extended.

Perhaps the manner in which I presented it came across as very formal. I didn't really think it would take this long. I said "unanimous consent" because I thought that would just deal with it very quickly. That's the only reason I used that term. I'll leave it at that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

Mr. Brassard.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

From my standpoint, I see significant issues with what Mr. Gerretsen is proposing, and I think there is a differentiation to be made. I know he has referenced the Canada-China committee a couple of times, but the Canada-China committee is a special committee of the House. It was fully constituted by the House of Commons. It's not a standing committee of the House.

What Mr. Gerretsen is proposing here is to make changes to the Standing Orders on how the committee structures are made.

As I recall, in the last Parliament I sat in a couple of those meetings, where Mr. Christopherson—

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

On a point of order, Madam Chair—sorry, Mr. Brassard—it seems as though we are now moving into debate, and I wanted to get some clarification from you as to what your ruling, in fact, was. Obviously Mr. Gerretsen moved this, asking for it to be done by consent. Is your ruling, then, that we are now entertaining this as a motion and it's up for debate, or are you planning to ask for consent?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I believe Mr. Tochor is on the list as well.

My intention is to try to read this into the record so that we can then entertain debate on the matter, but I will allow your colleagues to finish their thoughts at this point.

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

Before we do that, I just want to clarify that what you're suggesting is that you're making the ruling that this will be brought forward as a motion rather than asking that it be done by consent. Is that what you're doing here?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

As a motion, yes, that's correct.

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

That didn't seem to be the wish of Mr. Gerretsen.

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I may have missed that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

What Mr. Richards is asking about and what my ruling is leaning towards is that I will introduce this as a motion at this point, and not for consent, and then we can debate it. Was that your intention?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

That was not my intention. My intention was just to put something forward that I thought we could move by consent without debate. I'll have to withdraw based on that.