Human Resources Committee on May 4th, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

That's right.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Until she gets that and can draft her motion, why don't we suspend and alleviate the need to talk until we have all of the information in front of us?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

We stand suspended for five minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I call the meeting back to order and recognize Ms. Falk to put her amendment.

[Rosemarie Falk, Conservative, Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK]

Thank you, Chair.

I would like to move that the words “as the next order of business” be deleted from the motion and that following the words “six meetings”, we would add “and that the study take place after the completion of the seniors study unanimously agreed to on February 2, 2021”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Ms. Falk.

The amendment is in order. The debate now is on the amendment.

Mr. Vis—

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Go ahead, Mr. Vaughan.

[Adam Vaughan, Liberal, Spadina—Fort York, ON]

Now that the whole motion has an amendment, can we see a copy of that amendment, please? In the same way that she wanted to see what she was amending, I want to see what she has amended.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I would like to raise a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Chabot, I will come back to you as soon as I have made a decision on the first point of order.

Ms. Falk, are you able to provide a copy of your amendment to the clerk so that it can be circulated, please? Thank you.

Madame Chabot.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

You accepted that request, did you not?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Yes.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I am announcing that, at the next meeting, I will come back with my routine motion that you all rejected. My motion was precisely that we should have a written record of our deliberations. Everyone agreed that it was going to slow down the debate, and this is the consequence of that.

I am pleased that you agreed to wait until we had the written record of our deliberations. Let me remind you that the routine motion I previously introduced was precisely so that we should have that written record, in order for our work to proceed properly.

I just wanted to remind you of that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I remember.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

That's the Quebec motto.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

I know.

Mr. Vis, please, on the amendment.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

I have just a point before we start, Mr. Chair. Are the amendment and the original motion up for debate right now or just the amendment?

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

It's just the amendment. Once we dispense with the amendment, we'll debate the motion as amended or not. We're just on the amendment right now.

[Brad Vis, Conservative, Mission—Matsqui—Fraser Canyon, BC]

Okay. I will cede my time for the moment. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Ms. Chabot, the floor is yours on the amendment.

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

I agree with the amendment, Mr. Chair.

Here is why I agree with the amendment. I have to say that it is extremely important for our next study to be about seniors. I pointed that out last Thursday, when I reminded the meeting that we had had the debate on February 2 and that we had achieved consensus. You yourself said that you were happy that we had had a good meeting. After our study on employment insurance, we were supposed to begin our study on seniors.

I must also thank the clerk for sending us the transcript of the meeting. To ensure that our work is relevant, and for everyone's benefit, the committee has important responsibilities. We have to work together with four ministers, the Minister of Labour, the Minister of Employment, the Minister of Seniors and the Minister of Families.

I feel that it is perfectly appropriate for us to maintain the consensus on which we have all agreed.

The amendment proposes a study for our committee to follow the one on seniors. It is Mr. Turnbull's proposal, as amended. I agree with it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Go ahead, Mr. Tochor, please.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Thank you.

I'm very supportive of launching into the seniors study. I think there's a consensus now that we should be studying the seniors. I believe, after Ms. Chabot's comments on that, I'm fully willing to vote in favour of studying the seniors motion right now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Sean Casey]

Thank you, Mr. Tochor.

Mr. Vaughan, go ahead, please.