Evidence of meeting #59 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was lessard.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We're going to move to clause 17. What we have before you is amendment BQ-9, which is found on page 10 of your handout book. We're still dealing with page 12 of the bill.
Mr. Lessard, would you like to read your amendment and then give a brief description, please? Thank you, sir.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Mr. Chair, that's consistent with the decision the committee made earlier considering the word “shall”, which should apply instead of the word “may”. I believe the committee ruled and that it would be useful to vote on each of these amendments.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Unless my colleagues have changed their minds. We could begin.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We just want to know if it's okay if we apply the earlier vote. And if anyone has had a change of heart, let us know as we move forward on these. So we'll have that....
Is that okay, then, Monsieur Lessard?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you.
[See Minutes of Proceedings]
(Clause 17 agreed to)
(On clause 18)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We're now going to move to clause 18. We have a couple of motions, so let's deal with the first one.
First we have BQ-10, which is found on page 11 of your handouts, but now we move to page 17 of the bill.
Mr. Lessard, would you like to read your motion again? I believe it's the same “shall”.
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
I didn't understand clearly, and I apologize, Mr. Chair. Are you on page 14 of the amendments?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Sorry. It's page 11 of the handouts, page 17 of the bill, and I believe it deals with the same issue of “shall” again. We will continue along the same way we've been handling this and assume that everyone is--
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Okay.
(Amendment negatived) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
We will then move to BQ-11, which is also, I believe, a “shall” as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
So we'll have that deemed to be defeated as well.
(Amendment negatived) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
There are no amendments now.
(Clause 18 agreed to)
(On clause 19)
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We're now going to move to clause 19. There are a couple of amendments before us. The first one we have is BQ-12. This deals with the bill on page 18. This is another “shall”. Should this be deemed defeated as well?
Conservative
Conservative
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Mr. Chair, the purpose of this amendment was to ensure concordance with the decision that we had to make starting with clause 2. So it would be pointless to vote on it again, since we've already disposed of it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you. You're right. This motion is out of order, I've been informed, so we will strike that.
We will then move to NDP-2, which is once again on page 18 of the bill, page 15 of your handout package.
Ms. Charlton, would you like to read and maybe discuss the motion?
NDP
Chris Charlton NDP Hamilton Mountain, ON
I'd like to make an impassioned speech to try to persuade my Liberal colleagues to vote differently from how they did on the last amendment in this regard, but it is the same issue. It's about extending entitlements to Canadian citizens under a sponsorship agreement that currently exists and maintaining those entitlements for them. I suspect, though, that I should just accept the fact that this will be defeated as well.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We'll deem that as defeated as well.
(Amendment negatived) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
We'll move to BQ-14, which is identical.
Ms. Dhalla.
Liberal
Ruby Dhalla Liberal Brampton—Springdale, ON
Can we have Ms. Charlton expand a little in terms of her rationale for the amendment that she's putting forward?
NDP
Chris Charlton NDP Hamilton Mountain, ON
There are three amendments that all deal with the same issue. Currently, Canadian citizens are entitled to benefits during the course of their sponsorship agreement. Landed immigrants are not. In an effort to create equity, rather than entitling everybody to those benefits, we've now taken those entitlements away from Canadian citizens during the period of their sponsorship agreement. I moved that this be struck, even though I understand the department's hesitancy to expand the group of people who are entitled to the benefits. At a minimum, though, we should keep the status quo ante so that we're not actually diminishing the number of people who are accessing that benefit.