Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 3rd, 2009

[Rick Dykstra, Conservative, St. Catharines, ON]

I'm exhausted, sir, of any further motions.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Karygiannis, then Ms. Chow.

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

Mr. Chair, I would ask that we ask the clerk to bring forth the motions that the previous committee were still working on--there were a number of reports that still had not been dealt with--and for us to continue finishing those reports.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Before we get to that, I want to make sure we're finished with these motions.

And I don't know what Ms. Chow is up to, so....

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

I'm just reading the notes that were distributed, actually.

Last time, we had one more motion, which was on the distribution of unedited transcripts. I thought I would just make sure it got back in: that the unedited transcripts of committee meetings, the blues, be distributed on request to interested members of the bureaucracy, media, and public, provided that a clear caveat on their appropriate use accompanies them.

That seems to be what we had last time. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't have it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Are you putting that as a motion, Ms. Chow?

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

Yes, I just put it on the floor.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Is there any debate?

Mr. Calandra.

[Paul Calandra, Conservative, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

Actually, could you repeat it?

[An hon. member]

Maybe we should have a copy.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I understood the clerk passed this around.

[The Clerk]

No. I didn't get consent from the committee to pass it around.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right.

Could you read it again, Ms. Chow?

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

Yes. This was distributed to the members in the briefing book that we each got. It was attached to the last section, which contained the original motions that we had from before. It's in the last section.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Clerk, could you read the motion, please?

[The Clerk]

That the unedited transcripts of Committee meetings (“Blues”) be distributed on request to interested members of the bureaucracy, media and public, provided that a clear caveat on their appropriate use accompanies them.

[Maurizio Bevilacqua, Liberal, Vaughan, ON]

What does appropriate caveat mean?

[Some hon. members]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Oh boy, is there debate here?

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

Why don't I just put a full stop? If people have trouble with that, I will take off the last line.

[An hon. member]

But I want to know. I'm interested in that caveat comment.

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

I didn't write this before. I think Jim probably did--no?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

All right, the motion has been changed. Is there further debate?

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

Mr. Chair, I have a point of clarification or a point of order. If we're going to be in committee, the hearings and the workings of the committee are published, so people can tune in, and people can be here to listen, so whether we distribute unedited transcripts or not, it really doesn't make any difference. I don't see what the problem is from the government side. People can come in. They can listen in.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Let's see what happens here. We're going to have a vote.

All those in favour of the motion? One.