Citizenship and Immigration Committee on June 13th, 2013

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

A point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Before you do that....

Ms. Sims, you've been doing very well. You've actually been raising new points, at least in my opinion.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I plan to continue to do that, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I'm sure you will. However, you're now starting to repeat your old points, so try to be cautious about that.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I'll try not to.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

On a point of order, Mr. Dykstra.

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

You just stated my point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Ms. Sims, you may proceed.

Congratulations. We finally have new points, but please try not to repeat them, because we've heard them.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

I look forward to hearing your new points.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

I realize that it's been a long day, or a long week, whichever way you want to see it.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

It may be longer.

[Jinny Sims, NDP, Newton—North Delta, BC]

It may be longer, and that's okay. We're all paid a fairly good salary to do the job of parliamentarian, and I'm certainly committed to staying here in order to carry on and do that.

As I was saying, the committee does have wide-ranging business that it could be addressing during this time, and I do not believe we can allow a private member's bill to subsume the work of the committee in totality, which is basically what this would do. Actually, we had an agreement with the government to carry on with the study on temporary resident visas, which I know I've already mentioned, but I will go on to say that was for the very reason that we as a committee were not convened for a number of meetings and there was nothing for us to do, because everybody was waiting for this concurrence motion to take place.

That's why we kept waiting, but because the concurrence motion never actually got moved in the House, we were actually able to study. If we would allow this bill to go through its natural timelines, then I think we could actually get on with some pretty serious work that lies ahead of us, and allow the private member's bill to go to the House to be debated and to be voted upon, which is what private members would want. They would want their bill to be in the House, in the limelight of the world in the House of Commons, televised—everybody gets to hear their debate from both the opposition and from the government. Then we carry on.

I believe that this particular bill has gone through the cycle with the committee and is getting very close to missing those timelines. Of course, we do sit until Friday—I believe it's Friday at the end of the day—and if we are here until then, we are certainly prepared to carry on to argue that the committee should really be able to do the work of the committee now and move on to some other issues.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Thank you.

I have a comment to Mr. Leung and Mr. Lamoureux. There's a practice in the House of Commons: gentlemen wear their jackets. I know a lot of committees don't do that, and you can leave your jackets off, but I'm putting you on notice, both of you, that I won't recognize you unless you have your jackets on.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

I have just a quick point, then, Mr. Chairperson.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Madame Groguhé is the next speaker.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Mr. Chair, am I next on the list?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You have a point of order, Mr. Lamoureux.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Mr. Chairperson, you know, this evening I was actually sitting here in my place with my jacket on. I just took my jacket off because Mr. Dykstra hasn't had his jacket on, and he has been engaged on numerous occasions in the committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

You're right, he's—

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

Did you do this to your brothers when your parents were asking whose fault it was, just throw them under the bus?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Mr. Lamoureux, you're quite right, and I won't recognize Mr. Dykstra unless he has his jacket on as well.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you, Mr. Chairperson.

Now, go home and get your jacket, Rick.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Tilson]

Madame Groguhé.

[Sadia Groguhé, NDP, Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I, too, want to wade into the debate on Mr. Dykstra's motion, which seeks an extension of 30 sitting says to consider the bill. Tied to that 30-day extension is the possible expansion of the bill's scope.

I want to start by sharing the additions the minister is planning to make to the bill's scope, as regards the offences set out in the National Defence Act.