Evidence of meeting #54 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was discussion.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
We've met. We've consulted. We've discussed. We've met with the member who brought this bill forward. We also feel that the changes or the items brought forward from budget 2017 more than cover for this. Again, we've met with the mover of this bill. I don't know if I'm allowed to say his name here, MP Gerretsen, and he is asking that we strike that.
We talked about it. We think the changes we've seen in the budget cover this. That's why we want it struck off at his request also.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
I'm sorry, we're in favour of the clause. We're not striking the clause.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
We're just voting on the clause, not on an amendment to strike the clause.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Exactly.
Let's try that again. All those in favour of clause 6?
(Clause 6 negatived)
(Clause 7 negatived)
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
Thank you, Chair.
With respect to the preamble, we would like to move to delete lines 19 to 23 on page one.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
I'm just counting the lines here that he is referring to.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
Fair enough. I believe it starts at “Whereas” and ends at “children”.
Bob.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Could you just give the rationale, please?
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
I think those lines are basically universally understood. Again, we discussed it as a committee and I'm respecting MP Gerretsen's wishes to strike that out.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Bryan May
All those in favour of the amendment?
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Shall the preamble as amended carry?
12:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
We would like to shorten the title and replace it with “An Act respecting the development of a national maternity assistance program strategy”.
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Just to be consistent, what's the rationale?
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
We think it's a much clearer title, and again, we talked about it as a committee. We just thought that the original one “amending the Employment Insurance Act (maternity benefits)” was somewhat implicit in it. We just thought that this title was a much better, shorter—
12:15 p.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River—Northern Rockies, BC
Does the bill as amended even involve the Employment Insurance Act any longer? That's my next question.
12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Long Liberal Saint John—Rothesay, NB
I don't have an answer for that. We would just like to change the title. We think this is a much better title.