Evidence of meeting #56 for Citizenship and Immigration in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was questions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Andrew Kitching Committee Researcher
Usually they do. I'm not quite sure about the House procedure on that, Samy, but to all the reports I've seen, they have to give a response.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
Perhaps I could move a friendly amendment, then, to ask that the minister report back to the committee updating us as to her progress.
Conservative
Ed Komarnicki Conservative Souris—Moose Mountain, SK
There's a standing order, actually, dealing with reporting back. I think it would not be to report back on the progress, but it's a report back to the committee of the report that's filed. So whatever the standing order allows for is what it would be, if that's the amendment.
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
As a follow up to Mr. Wilson's comment, I believe that when we pass a motion, according to our rules and procedures, the minister has 45 days to let the committee know whether he or she accepts or rejects the committee's opinion. Perhaps the clerk could tell us whether this must be specified in the motion. Previously, we had done so for the Appeal Division and we had received an answer from the minister.
The Clerk
There are two ways to proceed. The first is under Standing Order 109.
Standing Order 109 stipulates that the government must respond to a committee report within 120 days.
The Clerk
That's one option that I'm not sure Mr. Wilson clarified.
The second option is to state, as you said, that the minister report back to the committee with a response. It's up to the committee to decide what they want to do.
Liberal
Blair Wilson Liberal West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country, BC
No, I'd like to put a friendly amendment, to add in there a request that the minister--
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
Do you want to put a date, a response within 30 days?
Bloc
Liberal
Andrew Telegdi Liberal Kitchener—Waterloo, ON
I have a certain amount of discomfort, because we're working on a report. This thing essentially mirrors some of the conclusions of the report. Mind you, the report has stronger language because it talks about crisis. It would seem to me that we'd want to go through the report, because we're still collectively working on it and we haven't dealt with it. You have the whole issue of confidentiality, of not leaking the report, because we don't want to undercut the conclusions; we all want it to be released at the same time. I think it would be proper to wait for the report to be completed and have that tabled in the committee.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Mr. Chair, in view of what Mr. Telegdi is saying, that we were in camera dealing with this report, right now we're in public and everything that we're saying is public. I would recommend two things: one, that everything we've said on this particular motion be back in camera, because we're dealing with the report itself; and two, until we finish the report, I think doing something like this would be premature.
We're working on a report; I can understand some members of this committee wanting to move forward because of the trouble we're having, but this is why the report was undertaken. For everything that we have said on this particular item, I would urge the chair to get unanimous consent that it goes in camera. There's nobody in here right now; it should go in camera.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
If you want to consider this a motion and seek unanimous consent that everything we said on this be in camera, then I'm prepared to move it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We could do that, or we could just deal with the motion. There seems to be consensus that the motion should be defeated.
Liberal
Jim Karygiannis Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Mr. Chair, I would say again that before we continue the conversation, things were said when we thought we were in camera. I'm seeking the chair's consent and the members' consent that everything that was said on this matter be dealt with in camera.
Conservative
NDP
Bill Siksay NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
No. Chair, I don't see how we can backtrack, because it's been broadcast for one thing. It's out there, and other people are here who have been hearing the discussion. I don't think there's any secret that the crisis at the IRB is something we were working on towards our report. We had hearings on it, and we've been telling people that it's going to be part of our report.
I don't think there's any crisis of confidentiality. We're also considering this motion because of the urgency of the issue and the time it will take us to finalize our report. Again, I think it emphasizes the work that we've been doing as a committee, and I still strongly support dealing with this motion today.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Norman Doyle
We'll have a final comment from Mr. Alghabra and Madame Faille. We'll see if we can deal first with the amendment and then the main motion.
Mr. Alghabra.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga—Erindale, ON
I hear some people saying this is something that's being dealt with in the report. I understand what they're saying. The report is dealing with various issues and various files, not only the IRB issue.
The committee has the opportunity now to express its opinion on the Harrison recommendation to the report specifically...nothing else that the report we're working on deals with. It directly responds and sends recommendations to the minister, based on recommendation 5 in the report.
The committee now has the opportunity to choose if they agree or not with recommendation 5. If they vote against it, basically that will say that the committee is okay with recommendation 5 and the Harrison report.
Thanks.