Evidence of meeting #15 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was point.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Yes, I'm sorry. That's a difficult thing to remember, for some reason.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
I believe your hand was raised from before. You have to unraise your hand, and then put your hand up.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
So I have to lower it, and then re-raise it. Okay, no problem.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I just saw my hand was raised and thought I was on the list. But okay, no problem.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
No, you have to unraise it; otherwise, it gives me an incorrect order, and you would always remain at the top of the list, the whole time. You may like that, but I'm sure the other members will want their turn.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
No, I don't think that would be fair. I just didn't realize. I thought that someone would lower the hand when we were given the floor. But okay, no problem.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
No problem.
The last person we're taking on this point of order is Madame Normandin. After that, we'll get on to the next step that I'll mention.
May 7th, 2020 / 12:15 p.m.
Bloc
Christine Normandin Bloc Saint-Jean, QC
I would like to speak because I have not yet done so and there was a concern that almost only members from the governing party have spoken to the point of order.
The only thing I would find unfortunate, if our meetings were public, is that, if we finally arrive at a consensus report, we would remember all the debates we had internally. It is manageable, I suppose.
I understand that those with dissenting opinions are going to make them known anyway in a minority report, which will be public. We must remember that. If you are prepared to put things in a public report, I do not see why there would be any discomfort in having us discuss it in committee publicly.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you for that comment. It's well noted, as well.
I think everyone has had an opportunity to discuss this issue at length, so I'm not going to entertain any more comments on this issue.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Do you want to make a new point of order, Mr. Richards? Is that what you're saying?
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
But I had my hand raised prior to your indicating that, Madam Chair, so I believe it would be in order for me to still have that opportunity.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
No, I did as you asked me to. I lowered my hand and then raised it. That was prior to your—
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Yes, but prior to taking Madame Normandin, I had already said that this would be the last speaker.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I still haven't heard any indication of how certain members, particularly the government members, feel about taking the “confidential” label off the report.
I'm certainly not comfortable proceeding to discuss in a public format something that is marked “confidential”. There are ways, besides leaving the meeting, that I can ensure this doesn't happen.
Despite the fact that people think this is not important, it is important. I think this is important enough that we can address it in other ways, if we can't come to an easy resolution. I can't imagine why anyone would have an issue with this.
I still think we're left with the problems around the second issue. Obviously, we need to address that in our report, for one thing. But, second, it does put members in a very awkward position. I guess some people on the conference call don't believe this is important. I think it is. Maybe you'll address that in what you're about to say.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I certainly will not be comfortable until we've addressed those issues. There are ways we can make sure they get addressed before we proceed. I hope we can address them somehow.
12:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Yes, and that is what I was going to do. I'm going to move forward from hearing from everybody on discussion of these points of order and allow you to have the floor, Mr. Richards, to move your motion in regard to removing the word “confidential” from this report. I'm going to interpret, for this purpose only, that motions related to the adoption of the report are in order. I'm interpreting that broadly, because I do believe that being able to do this will get us past this point and then allow us to go through the draft report, make our recommendations, and then submit it to Parliament, which is what we have been tasked with.
I believe this motion will be in order.
You have the floor, Mr. Richards.
12:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
Thanks, Madam Chair.
I'll still point out that we'll have to find some resolution to the second issue, obviously, but I think we can easily address the first issue, so I'll move the motion that the “confidential” label be removed from the report so that we can discuss it in a public forum. That will be the motion.