Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 18th, 2020

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and congratulations again on your appointment. We look forward to having great discussions with you and your helping us to be collegial at this committee, helping us keep order and present great topics of discussion that many Canadians want to see.

That being said, I want to move some routine motions. I want everyone to go lightly on me. I'm going to try to speak some small paragraphs in French, so please excuse me.

The first motions is under “Analysts”.

The motion is as follows:

That the committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the chair, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist it in its work.

Regarding the subcommittee on agenda and procedure, I move:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of five (5) members—

Pardon?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Excuse me. Mr. Tabbara, you have to move one motion at a time.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Tabbara has moved a motion, so we will debate it.

Go ahead, Mr. Kent.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

We enthusiastically concur. The value of the analysts to our work is essential.

I think this will be another unanimous vote.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Thank you.

(Motion agreed to)

Yes, Mr. Tabbara.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

I have another motion, this time on the subcommittee on agenda and procedure:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of five (5) members; the Chair, one Member from each Party; and that the subcommittee work in the spirit of collaboration.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Is there any debate on it?

(Motion agreed to)

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

On reduced quorum, I move:

That the Chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four (4) members are present, including one member of the opposition and one member of the government, but when travelling outside the parliamentary precinct, that the meeting begin after fifteen (15) minutes, regardless of members present.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Go ahead, Madam Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, and congratulations on being elected to the chair position.

On this reduced quorum motion, I'd like to propose a friendly amendment if I may. Instead of having one member from the opposition, could I propose that we have two members from the opposition and two members from the government side in the event of reduced quorum? I think this would be in the spirit of reflecting the minority government situation that we have today. Because we have three opposition parties on this side, it would enhance the numbers, increasing them by one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Do you have an amendment, Mr. Serré?

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

Congratulations, Madam Chair.

I agree that there should be two government members and two opposition members. Given the number of people here, this works well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

All those in favour of the amendment proposed by Ms. Kwan?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

All those in favour of the motion as amended?

(Motion as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Mr. Tabbara.

[Marwan Tabbara, Liberal, Kitchener South—Hespeler, ON]

On the questioning of witnesses, I move:

That witnesses be given ten (10) minutes for their opening statement; that at the discretion of the Chair, during the questioning of the witnesses, there be allocated six (6) minutes for the first questioner of each party as follows: Round one:

Conservative Party

Liberal Party

Bloc Québécois

New Democratic Party

For the second and subsequent rounds, the order and time for questioning be as follows:

Conservative Party, five minutes,

Liberal Party, five minutes,

Conservative Party, five minutes,

Liberal Party, five minutes,

Bloc Québécois, two and a half minutes,

New Democratic Party, two and a half minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

All those in favour?

Yes, Ms. Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I'm going to make a suggestion and wonder whether committee members have an interest in entertaining this.

Previously at this committee, when we had witnesses, instead of a 10-minute presentation by them, we had seven-minute presentations. Our rotation then was such that we would have seven minutes for the first round of questions and would then go to five minutes and then, in fact, I think, to three minutes. If time were available in the last round, instead of being two and a half minutes, it could be three minutes. I'd like to see whether there is any interest in looking at adjusting this.

I recognize that the proposed 10 minutes came from the procedure and House affairs committee and from negotiations and so on, there, but that too was the case in the last Parliament. However, this committee chose to do something a little different. We found that when we had witnesses presenting—and we often have quite a number of witnesses—we could get into a situation where the presentations consumed a lot of time, and therefore questioning by the committee was severely reduced.

I would like to test the floor to see whether there is interest in reducing the presentations by witnesses from 10 minutes to seven minutes, and then going to a round of questioning of seven minutes in the first round, five minutes in the second round, and then three minutes instead of two and a half in the last round.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

We have a list.

Mr. Kent is first.

[Peter Kent, Conservative, Thornhill, ON]

I appreciate my colleague's suggestion, but, for example, when the minister comes for only an hour, looking at the allocation of times now, the addition of the four extra minutes in the first round would make it difficult for the New Democratic Party to get in its second-round questions.

Given the dynamics of the four parties and the breakdown that PROC has suggested, I think that as the best way to ensure that all parties get their full representation in a single hour—the first and second rounds—the timing offered by PROC is probably more appropriate.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Mr. Serré is on the list.

Mr. Serré.

[Marc Serré, Liberal, Nickel Belt, ON]

I appreciate the suggestion.

I agree with Mr. Kent, in the sense that we should leave the 10 minutes there.

We have a generous separation with the four parties. If there are additional witnesses—and this has been approved by PROC—say, three or four witnesses, maybe the discretion of the chair could be utilized at that meeting itself. However, what would be adopted as approved is the 10 minutes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Madam Kwan.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

If we reduce the minutes for the presenters to seven minutes, you save three minutes. That three minutes could then be added to the questioning component. I table that to test the floor to see if people are interested in doing it.

I am cognizant that as committees get going you have a number of different witnesses, and so seven minutes per witness would help allow for additional time for questioning.