Industry Committee on Nov. 15th, 2007

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

I think it was clear from comments that the three opposition parties in general favour retaining the status quo, but, as Mr. McTeague pointed out, Mr. Carrie did bring forward these motions. It's his right as a committee member to make these motions, and it's the right of other committee members to accept or reject these motions.

It may be in fact that every single point is rejected, if that's the decision of the committee. I think Mr. Carrie has the right to make the motion or make the argument. It is accepted or not, and then we move on.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

That's my preference. Vote on them, get them out of the way, and move on.

For the first one, are members okay with the new motion, or do they prefer the old motion? It's not a big change, so I don't think we should be particular either way.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

It's acceptable on our side.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Carrie, you have one motion.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

At this point, I just want to welcome the analysts, the researchers. They now do exist because we've said they exist. Dan Shaw has been with us for quite some time, and we all know and love Dan very much.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Can we have a motion on that?

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

And we have Eleanor Fast. Eleanor is new to the committee, and we very much look forward to working with her as well. She was with the British High Commission, I believe. She's an expert in the science policy area, if any of you have any interest there. Dan, of course, is the resident economist.

Please feel free, as members, to work with them. They are, of course, non-partisan and they're here to serve the committee as a whole and members individually. Feel free to liaise with them as much as possible.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

Welcome.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Welcome.

[Dan Shaw, Committee Researcher]

I should mention that the third member is Mark Mahabir. His background is in law.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Is Mark going to be a regular?

[Dan Shaw]

If we need law.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Okay.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

We do.

I understand one is from the British High Commission originally. That's encouraging, but in Canada we have such things as the “low commission”. Of course, Mr. Mahabir will be able to talk a little about that later on. My commission is very cheap, by the way.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Thank you.

We'll now go to “Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure”.

Mr. Carrie, briefly.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

The idea here, to clarify, was to try to make it more equitable for the opposition, but also to define a quorum. If we have a subcommittee and the subcommittee is designed to do some work, it's to make sure there is a quorum made up of at least three members, one from the government and two opposition members, and then, to clarify that, you're allowed to have an assistant at the meeting. That's the idea behind it.

If there's an issue with the wording, or if you don't like it, we don't have to change that. Since subcommittees can do important work, we thought it important to clarify it and make sure that it's equitable for the opposition, that you don't have three government members there. If you can give me your feedback on this, that would be wonderful.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. McTeague.

[Dan McTeague, Liberal, Pickering—Scarborough East, ON]

I think the current system works well as it is. I don't have a problem with the parliamentary secretary--generally, I think he's been very good--but from the perspective of subcommittee work, I think we should leave it the way it is. That would be the opinion of the Liberal party, Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Madam Brunelle.

[Paule Brunelle, Bloc, Trois-Rivières, QC]

We object to having the Parliamentary Secretary sit on the subcommittee. When the Liberals were in power, parliamentary secretaries sat on the committee, but it was as a result of the repeated demands of the Conservative Party, that it all changed. It seems to me that we should keep the status quo concerning the make up of the steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Ms. Nash.

[Peggy Nash, NDP, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

We support the status quo there.

[The Chair, Conservative, James Rajotte]

Mr. Carrie.