Citizenship and Immigration Committee on March 29th, 2007

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

I am.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Since I'm not a parliamentary expert, I again turn to my clerks for advice.

You're challenging the ruling of the chair that the member has unlimited time to present his motion.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

That's correct.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Where do we go from here, Mr. Clerk?

[The Clerk of the Committee]

You put the question, shall the ruling of the chair be sustained?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Shall the ruling of the chair be sustained?

(Ruling of the chair overturned)

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

On a point of order, Mr. Chair, I move that we go on to the next witnesses.

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

There's a motion on the floor, and there's a point of order.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

There are consequences to your challenge of the chair. We now have to hear what the consequences are of your challenging the chair.

[Blair Wilson, Liberal, West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC]

I'd call for a vote.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

We're now back to the motion.

[Rahim Jaffer, Conservative, Edmonton Strathcona, AB]

Let's find out what the rules are. What are the consequences now that he's challenged the chair?

[An hon. member]

There's no debate.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

On a point of order, Chair, there's no debate on a substantive motion before the committee. The chair has been challenged. The chair has been overruled. You now proceed to the next order, which is the motion itself, of course.

Thank you, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

My experts here at the table tell me that's correct. We have to move on to the next order of business.

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

The motion should be read.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I'm told I have to put the question on your motion.

All in favour of the motion--

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

Before the question is put, I would like to speak to the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

You can't speak to the motion. The motion is finished. I have to call for the vote on the motion.

(Motion negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Thank you for your presence here today, and my apologies for the delay.

I'm going to suspend for a minute to allow other people to come to the table.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I'm sorry we were delayed a bit, but we seem to be having some procedural differences at the table.

Just to clarify to Mr. Telegdi, now I'm told by the clerk that I could have recognized the point of order while Mr. Komarnicki was speaking. I'm not going back to any of this, mind you, but to clarify what has happened, I could have recognized the point of order while he was speaking. But you cannot move a motion to challenge the chair on the point that I was supposed to go back to Mr. Komarnicki.

So for future reference, that's the procedure, according to the rules I'm told about by the clerk. However, what's done is done.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

Mr. Chair, I suggest we check on that with the clerk upstairs.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I certainly have the clerk checking right now.

[Andrew Telegdi, Liberal, Kitchener—Waterloo, ON]

I don't mean the clerk here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

So I will now go to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. We have with us today Krista Daley, senior general counsel; and Paul Aterman, director general, operations branch.

Welcome. I know you have opening statements.