Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 1st, 2007

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

Just before we go there, are we appending something to that?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

No.

[The Clerk]

What we're doing is we're amending the steering committee report. We're putting this preamble with two “whereases” just before what I read in. So it would start off, “WHEREAS countless Canadians”, etc., “WHEREAS the committee asks the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration”. So it would be those two paragraphs and then the whole steering committee report.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Okay. That means the second paragraph changes.

[The Clerk]

I know, but—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

I mean, versus having three meetings. Can we not take it down to two meetings? We need to move on this, and people who are interested stakeholders....

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

I would like to speak to that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Let's deal with this first, and then we'll go with the number of meetings we're having.

Are all in favour?

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

Sorry, if you're appending the two together, if you're passing it as a whole, we need to deal with it as a whole. If you're just going to pass the preamble without the whole—

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

And I said that. I asked for two meetings versus three.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

The number of meetings we're going to have is really a separate issue from what we're doing here now.

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

Mr. Chair, it's not a separate issue. The fact of the matter is, this is being appended to the whole subcommittee report, and we should talk about that little bit before we vote on it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

This is an amendment to the steering committee's report. So this is a separate motion that's open for debate.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

May I make a friendly amendment? We can put in there that two meetings be held and then the steering committee decides if we need any more.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Well, let's deal with one at a time, and the first one we're going to deal with is what has already been put before the committee.

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

Mr. Chair, since I put that motion forward, may I get a chance to amend the amendment I put forward?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes. Are you consenting to withdraw this?

[Jim Karygiannis, Liberal, Scarborough—Agincourt, ON]

No. I'm saying that instead of having three meetings, we have two meetings, and if the steering committee decides that we want any more meetings, then we go ahead with it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Okay, let's deal with that after, the number of meetings. But we have this in front of us right now and I want to deal with this particular part of it.

Is it agreed that we amend the steering committee report by adding these two “whereas” preambles before?

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

The only thing is, we haven't accepted the subcommittee's report yet or even talked about it.

[The Clerk]

That's what the committee is doing. It's amending the steering committee report.

The report is in front of you, and all you're doing is trying to amend it. So if you don't agree to this “whereas”, we go back to the—

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

Could we discuss it?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You heard the steering committee report.

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

Before you vote on a motion, you first discuss the amendment, before you discuss the final—

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We've already heard it. Now, are we going to amend it by putting in these two “whereas” preambles? All in favour?

(Amendment agreed to)