Human Resources Committee on June 17th, 2024

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, Mr. Jarvis.

We have 20 minutes left before the bells, and it takes us 12 minutes to vote. We have a choice. The committee can proceed, vote virtually from here, suspend while we vote virtually and get a round of questioning in. If we follow the routine with members going to the House, by the time they get back, we'll be at 6:25, and we have resources until 6:30.

Is there agreement from the committee members to vote through the app?

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

That's my position.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

With the app, we can suspend and do that. That's done, but I need unanimity from the committee on that.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Mr. Chair, when we look at the last two votes that just happened, there were multiple members from all parties who weren't able to vote on the app and had to vote in the House, including when they were on Zoom. They had to race to the House, and that was just in the last two votes, myself included on the first one. I had an issue. I don't think it's reasonable, especially considering that this vote relates to government legislation, specifically the Canada Elections Act.

It's government legislation, and the government is the one that has chosen to vote at this time. They can choose to vote at any time. They could have had votes later this evening, but they chose to do it right now during our committee time. It's their choice.

We would want to go to the House to be able to vote on this based on what's already happened today with the voting app.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Madame Chabot, you had your hand up.

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

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I want to sincerely thank the witnesses for their patience. In addition, as we can see, the work of the House will disrupt the schedule.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I'm waiting for my translation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Translation is working fine. Interpretation is fine. It's in the room.

Ms. Chabot, you have the floor.

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

I stand in solidarity with Ms. Zarrillo.

Mr. Chair, as you said, the unanimous consent of the committee is required. I agree with suspending the meeting momentarily while we vote electronically. Although we may question the repetition of the voting we have to do in the House because of the gag order, it was the government that decided that. That said, I am prepared to vote remotely so that we can continue the meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you.

Madame Chabot, I do not have consent. Without unanimous consent, I have to suspend, but I'm not adjourning the meeting. I'll suspend according to the rules, and we'll resume when the vote is recorded in the House.

Witnesses, we will have to ask you to bear with us for at least 30 minutes, whoever wants to stay on.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Let's let the witnesses go.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Well, I can't....

Those witnesses who have pressing things, you were committed here for an hour and a half—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

This is the government's timeline doing this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Order. I'm going to suspend in a moment because the committee would not reach a consensus, and some members want to return to the chamber to vote, which is their prerogative.

I'll suspend, but to those witnesses who are still online, when we resume, we may get to you, but that will be a question. You'll have to judge accordingly. At this time, we suspend until the vote is announced in the chamber.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Thank you, committee members. Everybody is back, so we can resume the committee meeting.

We have five more minutes. We must conclude at 6:30, because our resources go until then. It's not my intention to go in camera, because to go in camera would use that time. It's unlikely, but I'll take direction from the committee.

One item that we can deal with is that this is the last scheduled meeting that I have on this particular issue, so we can move in one of two ways. If we do conclude, I would like to give the analyst the opportunity to begin reviewing and preparing a report. The only way we could provide drafting instructions would be written drafting instructions to the analyst. I would suggest that we do that and have them in before the end of June. This does not pre-empt the committee choosing, at a later date, to examine this study more. It would be incorporated in the final report, which the committee must do. That's the only clarification that I would like to get direction from the committee on.

I will get to you, Mrs. Gray, in a moment.

I would want to advise the witnesses that it's unlikely we'll get to questioning at this time, but all those witnesses who have appeared can provide additional written information to the committee clerk on anything else that they wanted to proceed with.

With that, I have Mrs. Gray.

[Tracy Gray, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

Great. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

It's obvious that this discussion around housing is very important, and we need to continue this. We know that homelessness encampments are increasing. We saw, just within the last couple of days here, reports of a surge in people living in RVs and highway rest stops. We know how incredibly unaffordable it is for many people to house themselves. We heard some testimony here today. I think it makes sense to have the witnesses come back so that we can ask them some questions.

This meeting was the way it was because of the Liberals and how they're managing their agenda. Conservatives are willing to work over the summer to continue working on this housing crisis. Therefore, I'd like to move the following motion:

Given the amount of outstanding work at this committee, the committee instruct the chair to schedule five meetings between July 9 and September 13, in order for the committee to continue its work on Canada's housing crisis and propose solutions so more Canadians can afford to buy and rent a place to live.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. It should be in order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

It is in order. I have a motion that is in order from Mrs. Gray.

Is there discussion on this?

I have a speaking list of Ms. Zarrillo, Mrs. Falk, Ms. Ferreri, Mr. Fragiskatos and Madame Chabot. The clock is running.

[Bonita Zarrillo, NDP, Port Moody—Coquitlam, BC]

My speaking order wasn't for this motion, Mr. Chair. You can take me off.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Go ahead, Mrs. Falk.

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

Thank you very much, Chair.

I think it's imperative that we meet over the summer. We've heard very compelling testimony, and we know that we need to bring these witnesses back in order to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

Mrs. Falk, the bells are ringing again.

It is now 6:30, so with that, I'm going to adjourn the meeting.

[An hon. member]

Are we not even going to...?

[The Chair, Liberal, Bobby Morrissey]

I'm following the rules, the standing order. The bells are ringing in the chamber, and it is 6:30.

[An hon. member]

The bells are not ringing. The lights are not flashing.