Human Resources Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

I will see first of all if you have unanimous consent to present a motion. I think that because it pertains to the business in hand, you wouldn't need 48 hours' notice. I think everyone is in agreement that Mr. Savage can now present a motion.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

He doesn't need that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

He doesn't need it because it's pertaining to this.

Chantal mentioned that direction would be needed if it pertained to the reports of other committees and/or the testimony, so could you, in your motion, clarify whether you're speaking just about reports or about reports and testimony?

You're indicating it's just reports. All right.

Let's take a moment so that we can look at what motion we're dealing with, and then we can discuss it.

[Raymonde Folco, Liberal, Laval—Les Îles, QC]

Madam Chair, could I suggest a few minutes for us to get some food?

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Sure. Why don't we just suspend for a moment?

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

We're ready to resume.

We have a motion that Mr. Savage is moving. The motion reads as follows:

That the Reports of the other committees which are tabled with regard to the impact of the changes to the long form census be appended to the final report of the HUMA Committee.

I'll explain that we had to put “which are tabled”. Actually, there are no reports currently tabled; technically, we have no reports right now to append, so we have to say “reports...which are tabled” at the time when we adopt our report on the impact of the long-form census. Mr. Savage has been made aware of this, but I want to make sure you all know about it as well.

We have a motion on the table.

Go ahead, Mr. Savage.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

So as to avoid any confusion about this motion down the road, by “committees”, we're talking about House of Commons committees.

As for “appended”, can the clerk just indicate what “appended” means, since we've had probably about six hours' discussion of what “considered” means? Can you explain to the committee what “appended” means?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Travis Ladouceur]

If I understand your question correctly, Mr. Savage, you're referring to the precise meaning of the word “appended” in the course of this particular motion. It basically means that this particular motion, once adopted, will render it important that reports that have been submitted by other committees of the House with regard to the long-form census issue be appended in their integral form, as they have been presented to the House, at the end of the report. Appending any documentation to a report of the House of Commons basically implies that it's done at the end of the process, so it would be done once all paragraphs and all recommendations have been agreed upon by the committee. “Appended” in this particular case refers to, more specifically, the report of the status of women committee, which I believe is currently working on a report pertaining to this particular issue.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

The intent here is that our report not be held up waiting for any other reports. It just means those reports that have been tabled by the time we are ready to do ours.

[The Clerk]

Once the committee on human resources decides to table the report, if other reports on this issue have been tabled by that particular time, they will be appended to the committee's report.

[Michael Savage, Liberal, Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS]

Thank you, Chair. I appreciate the staff's assistance. Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Go ahead, Mr. Komarnicki.

[Ed Komarnicki, Conservative, Souris—Moose Mountain, SK]

For whatever it's worth, to be “appended” is certainly clear in its intention. It's not to be tabled and considered, as was in the first motion, which has been rescinded. If all of the other committees are going to file their reports in the House, as they will, we will then duplicate the filing by appending the reports but not considering them, which in my mind defies a certain amount of logic. If the sole purpose is to add a piece of paper to the report, a piece of paper that's already going to be tabled in the House and filed by another committee, it doesn't achieve very much, and that's where we've come to. It points out with particular clarity what was intended in the first motion and why this one is contrary to it, and lacking.

The other interesting thing is that it comes after people have relied on the first motion, which I've always maintained, and conducted themselves accordingly, and that's most unfortunate.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Thank you, Mr. Komarnicki.

We will now vote on the motion before us.

Go ahead, Mr. Lessard.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Madam Chair, we are going to amend this motion for the reasons cited by Mr. Komarnicki. It is surprising to hear him express a concern about the environment. As a general rule, the Conservatives are not particularly focussed on the environment. But, in this case, I tend to agree with him.

Madam Chair, I think this would be applicable. We are in the electronic era. We also want to avoid repetition, particularly in writing. We are therefore in favour of an amendment whereby there would be a reference in the appendix to the work done by other committees on the long-form census. The reports would be identified by including electronic references, so that people could then go and consult the reports. That way, people would be free to go and look at what was said. Furthermore, we would avoid a duplicate printing of reports that are already printed--

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Mr. Lessard, are you moving an amendment? If you are--

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Can you please write out that amendment for us so that we know what it is? We'll have to discuss the amendment and vote on it, so we'll give you a moment to write out that amendment.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Certainly. Thank you.

Could we suspend the meeting for a few minutes to give me time to put the amendment in writing?

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

Yes, we'll suspend for a moment so that you can write it down. Thank you.

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Perfect.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

We're going to resume the meeting.

Mr. Lessard, if your amendment is ready, we can consider it. If not, then we will continue with discussion, but if there are further amendments, they would take precedence over yours. Is your amendment ready, Mr. Lessard?

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Candice Bergen]

All right. Would you please read it?

[Yves Lessard, Bloc, Chambly—Borduas, QC]

Madam Chair, just to be sure my amendment is well understood, I would like to read Mr. Savage's motion:

« That the reports of other committees which are tabled with regard to the impact of the changes to the long-form census […] ». Here we would include the words: « be mentioned as a reference in the final report of the HUMA Committee ». We would therefore replace « be appended » with « be mentioned as a reference ».