Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Nov. 15th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I think this is what the clerk is trying to determine right now.

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

Whether we deal with it today or the next day is another....

The second point deals with where this committee is to go. We're intending to strike a subcommittee, as Mr. Telegdi has said, to review what's happened. Time has passed, and other issues have arisen. It may be we end up studying the same thing we left off, and that may be fine. But it may not be, and that's why we have a subcommittee that needs to be established to determine this.

We shouldn't combine those two; there has to be something wrong with combining those two together. I think if we're going to deal with a motion, we should deal with routine proceedings. I don't think it's right to do so, but if we're going to, let's deal with it. Then, if we're going to strike a subcommittee, let's do that, and let them review this and come back to this committee. Then we can decide whether we're indeed going to be where we left off.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I think we should do routine proceedings on Tuesday.

Is that what you're saying?

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

Let me revisit the motion I made and drop off the routine proceedings.

The motion should read that this committee immediately bring back the agenda we had, and that every motion that was in there or every study we had on the table before we prorogued be brought back again, and that the steering committee immediately engage in the plan for us to execute that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Would that be sufficient? Then the steering committee would engage in a plan as to how these studies should be put in place, whether it's—

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chairman, is the motion just to adopt routine proceedings? If so, can't we have a motion just to adopt routine proceedings? Isn't that the first order of the day?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

No, we are not dealing with routine proceedings. That's not on the agenda, in any event. What we are dealing with is the motion that was put forward by Mr. Karygiannis to pick up the various studies that were done the last time around.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

Mr. Chairman, just on a point of order, are you allowing this motion to stand?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Yes.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

So in about 30 seconds, I will move another motion that does not require unanimous consent, because any motion can stand, basically, right?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

That would be the case, if we haven't adopted routine proceedings.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

So am I the speaker immediately after Mr. Karygiannis?

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I will recognize you at that time.

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

I think the clerk needs to rule whether we can do any other business before we get the routine proceedings established. We should know that. You can't start conducting business without having some basic rules of the road. Otherwise, it's anarchy.

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

Mr. Chair, if I may....

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Let's just hang on for a moment. We have your motion and we know what it is. I will ask the clerk if it is in order.

I'll give the clerk some time to write up the motion and then determine whether or not it's in order; then we'll vote on it. If not, we'll be here all night.

[Olivia Chow, NDP, Trinity—Spadina, ON]

I have a motion immediately after this one, if you accept this one.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

I'm well aware.

[Dave Batters, Conservative, Palliser, SK]

Jim, your motion now separates the routine proceedings—you took those out. You now just have the studies that we were covering previously. You want us to study those.... You took the routine proceedings part out of your motion and you want to bring back the stuff we were studying before. You're moving that we study that again immediately, or to put that back on our plates.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Mr. Karygiannis, as we're all aware, put a motion in front of the committee, and now he's amended the motion. But he does need unanimous consent to amend this motion. He made it clearer.

Does he have unanimous consent to amend the motion?

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

All right, then I guess the first motion I made stands.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

Because if not, the first motion will stand and then we're into a lot of confusion.

So let me ask again. It's a fairly simple motion that we have here right now from Mr. Karygiannis. Does he have unanimous consent to amend his motion?

The motion would read: that the committee resume all studies under way at the time of prorogation....

[The Clerk]

I need to get the rest of the bit about the steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Norman Doyle]

So does he have unanimous consent to do that?

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

Mr. Chair, just so I understand this, Mr. Karygiannis said we should adopt the routine proceedings, and then he had the other stuff. So why don't we split the motion?