Evidence of meeting #54 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was benefit.
A recording is available from Parliament.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I was interested in what my colleague Mr. Komarnicki said. Did I say it right?
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
That's pretty good for an Acadian.
Maybe he will agree that we could go to another subamendment into which we could put all those numbers of weeks when they have different times they could claim. Maybe he would be interested in working on a subamendment.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
I can say this. Mr. Godin doesn't care about the cost part of it, as long as it's bigger and wider.
NDP
Yvon Godin NDP Acadie—Bathurst, NB
I'm not finished. Maybe you think I don't care about the cost, but I can tell you that it's not the government that is paying into it. It's the workers and the businesses who are paying into it, and the government is taking that money to balance the budget and have the deficit go to zero.
That's where I'm coming from. I'm just trying to add my piece on that.
Conservative
Bloc
Yves Lessard Bloc Chambly—Borduas, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Last year, we debated the costs extensively. In terms of amending the regime, we all agreed, Liberals, NDP and the Bloc, on a minimum threshold. This measure was part of that consensus. We have already debated whether or not the fund could afford this measure. For that reason, we are comfortable with putting forward this proposal at this time. I understand that our Liberal colleagues are on board with this. That is consistent with what they told us last year.
November 3rd, 2009 / 4:50 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you very much. I will call the question.
(Amendment agreed to)
(Clause 5 as amended agreed to)
(Clauses 6 and 7 agreed to)
We have the last couple of questions.
Shall the title carry?
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Shall the committee order a reprint of the bill as amended for use in the House at report stage?
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We have a motion from Mr. Martin, but before I do that, there's been some suggestion from Ms. Davies that one day is not a sufficient amount of time for us to hear her bill. As well, a number of witnesses, including Ms. Davies, have confirmed for Thursday. There are seven.
Quite frankly, given the number of witnesses, I don't know how we will have a chance to go clause by clause on her bill on Thursday. My suggestion is that we break it down into two groups. Ms. Davies and a couple of witnesses can talk in the first hour, and then we would have the other four witnesses. We'd have three witnesses in the first hour and then four in the second. Then we could go to clause-by-clause consideration on the Tuesday after we return from the break.
I'm going to ask the committee what their thoughts are. We can discuss it and then we can go from there.
Go ahead, Mr. Savage.
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
I don't have a problem with that. Did we have anything scheduled for the Tuesday after the break week?
Liberal
Michael Savage Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Do we have any witnesses planned, or anything like that? If not, that's fine by me.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
All right. We'll go to clause-by-clause study on the Tuesday when we return.
Let's go to Mr. Martin's motion.
Mr. Martin, could you read your motion into the record? The floor is yours.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Sorry, Mr. Martin. I've just been told by the clerk that you need to withdraw the old one and let us know what the new one is.
NDP
Tony Martin NDP Sault Ste. Marie, ON
I withdraw the old motion and I will read the second motion into the record. It's not that dissimilar from the first one, but there are some changes--