Citizenship and Immigration Committee on May 27th, 2010

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

That's fine.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay.

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

I just wanted to.... Look, I understand that there is agreement to potentially table some amendments as we go through clause-by-clause. Inevitably, that's going to happen. My hope was--and I thought there was agreement from all four parties--that we were going to be submitting all of our amendments before we got to clause-by-clause so that we had an understanding of the direction we were taking. If someone or one of the parties is not... And, look, the only exception I can make is that, as Terry rightfully points out, how are you supposed to submit amendments to potential...?

That said, what the minister is going to be tabling isn't anything that's going into the bill itself. He's tabling regulations that we can potentially discuss and potentially provide advice to the minister on.

While I think your question is valid, it should be clear that we are not getting an amendment to a clause that you're not going to see before you submit your amendments. What you're not going to be able to see is what the regulations are going to look like before you've submitted your amendments.

While I understand the concern, it should be clear that we're talking about regulations. We're not talking about actual clauses within legislation. It's my hope that the reason we would be submitting amendments on the day of, versus in advance, is that you forgot something or you thought something came up, versus holding back nine or six or four amendments for no reason.

I know that's not under your control, Chair, but I thought we had an agreement on that among the parties.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

And you know what?

[An hon. member]

I don't think we do--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

And you may well... The reason that Monsieur St-Cyr has made some comments about getting regulations or draft regulations... I don't think this committee can amend draft regulations. Some of you are more experienced than I am on this, but I don't think you can. But it might spur on some amendments.

I have Mr. Coderre and then Mr. Karygiannis.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Mr. Chairman, first, this is a bill that will have a considerable impact on people's lives.

Second, I would like us to show some flexibility because this is an important moment. Since my colleague Mr. Dykstra has probably already seen the regulations, and as we always work in good faith here in any case, perhaps it would have been more helpful for us to receive the regulations right away because I'm sure they won't be drafted Monday night. We could have been given them right away; we're all in good faith. We would have worked in that direction, and we would have seen whether there were any amendments that should be introduced in the meantime. Here I must admit I feel rushed.

And the more I ask questions, the more I see things. There's yes, 95%, probably we all know what we're doing on both sides, but I'm starting to have some issues, like the designated country. But saying that, I don't want to filibuster; I want to make sure we make things happen. That's the reason we're sitting until midnight on June 3. It would be appropriate to send those regulations in advance so that at least we can read and start the work. Because if--

[An hon. member]

[Inaudible--Editor]

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

That's it. Okay? Confidential: you have our word that there won't be any leaks or stuff like that--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay. Why don't you talk about that among yourselves?

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

No, no. That's important because, as you said, there might be some amendments. We don't know what it is.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Well, things are going on that the chair doesn't know about, so you know....

Mr. Karygiannis--

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

Well, in my case, I would invite you to every meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're so kind.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Once again, I've lost control of the meeting.

Mr. Karygiannis, you have the floor.

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

Thank you, Chair.

Chair, as long as we have your understanding that you will be flexible and that amendments can come from the floor as we're discussing this...

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Does anyone else have anything to say?

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

On that topic, I do. On a point of order, or at least on a point of clarification, I would like to speak before these witnesses are heard.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Okay. We have a point of order. We're still on the record. Before we get to the next witnesses, do we need time...?

Okay, we're way over our time, but we'll try to solve that somehow.

We're officially into the second hour.

Go ahead on a point of order, Mr. Dykstra.

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

I just want to get some clarification. One of our witnesses is actually a candidate for the Liberal Party of Canada in the next federal election. He's a former member of the House of Commons. As a former member of this House, he may have some experience with respect to the House of Commons, but he's here, and he's a candidate for one of our four parties, the Liberal Party of Canada, and he's presenting--

[Thierry St-Cyr, Bloc, Jeanne-Le Ber, QC]

I'm a candidate.

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

But you're not witnessing--

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

He was last time--

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

No, no. Let him finish, Mr. Karygiannis.