Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee on Dec. 6th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Welcome, members, to our committee meeting today.

We have a couple of small housekeeping matters. There will be bells at 5:15 and we begin votes at 5:30. We will need to either end our meeting or suspend our meeting at 5:15 to head over to the House today. So for those of you who are on the list of speakers, wherever we are at that time, we will stop.

In a moment we're going to continue--like one of those kids' stories, we're going to pick up where we left off the last time--with clause-by-clause of Bill C-21.

We are still discussing amendment NDP-1 from Ms. Crowder.

As I said at the end of the last meeting, we'll pick up with our list from where we were. I don't know if you have it, but to my recollection, Mr. Russell has the floor, and subsequently Mr. Albrecht and then Mr. Warkentin. I think those were the three names I had on that list.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

Mr. Chairman, this is a point of order.

I would seek consent from the committee to withdraw my first amendment. I don't know if that means also withdrawing the challenge to the chair on the ruling on that amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

I am informed that in order for you to withdraw amendment NDP-1, you would require the unanimous consent of the committee.

[Jean Crowder, NDP, Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC]

I'm aware of that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Is it such? Is it unanimous--

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

Mr. Chair, we need to consider this briefly. Can we call upon your grace to take a minute?

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Yes, take a minute.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

I'm not sure if this is a point of order either, but we would like to mention there are pastries and dainties at the back of the room, supplied by my office to provide some Christmas cheer at this meeting.

[An hon. member]

Hear, hear!

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

For those who need Christmas treats, I will suspend for about two minutes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Could I bring the committee back to order, please.

Ms. Crowder would like to withdraw amendment NDP-1 from the floor. In order to do that, she requires unanimous consent.

Do I have unanimous consent?

[An hon. member]

No.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

Mr. Chair, in light of the fact that we've invested two hours of debate into this--which we view as really having been a filibuster, in our opinion--we feel that we might as well at this point simply call the question. It's the easiest way to deal with this amendment.

So I'd recommend to Jean to call the question on this and take a vote on it.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

It's not up to the member to withdraw the issue. If there's no unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment, the amendment is still on the floor.

If the three people who are on the speakers list say they would like to remove their names from the speaking list and there are no further names, then we will call the question at that point. But Ms. Crowder cannot take this off the floor herself.

At this point I guess we come back to you, Mr. Russell. If you would like to have the floor, it is yours. If not, you can let us know.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Just to be clear, there is no unanimous consent?

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

There is no unanimous consent to withdraw the amendment. As I said, we're into a little bit of Alice in Wonderland now. We could continue talking about something that we know even the proposer doesn't want to amend any more.

As I said, if you'd like to speak to it, you do have that right. But in an effort to move forward, if the three members whose names were on the list agree to withdraw their names from the list, then we will proceed to the vote on this, and we will be able to move on to the second amendment.

[Todd Russell, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

I'll withdraw my name from the list.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Thank you.

[Harold Albrecht, Conservative, Kitchener—Conestoga, ON]

Mr. Chair, I'm prepared to withdraw if we have the assurance that we are in fact going to call the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

If Mr. Warkentin withdraws, then we will call the question, and if anyone else jumps in, you can jump in again too. So I would say that you don't need to be concerned.

Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

With the same assurances, I'll withdraw.

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

If there are no others who would like to speak to this, I would like to call the question on NDP-1.

[Rod Bruinooge, Conservative, Winnipeg South, MB]

Mr. Chair, could we get a recorded vote on this as well?

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Yes.

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 7; nays 3 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

[The Chair, Conservative, Barry Devolin]

Mr. Bruinooge.