Evidence of meeting #1 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:40 p.m.
Terry Thomas Committee Researcher
Thank you very much.
I am Terry Thomas. Dan has told you the truth.
It's a pleasure to be here.
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
All right, moving on then, the next motion to be discussed is to create the subcommittee on agenda and procedure. I'm sorry, just to clarify this, it is as presented in the last Parliament?
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Can I get some clarification? Can we make sure we're working off the same page? Should we just assume throughout this discussion that we're going to be working off what was presented in the last session and not the default page? Is that fair to say?
Could we make an amendment on that routine motion, that at the end it would just add “that each member of the subcommittee shall be permitted to have one assistant attend at any meeting of the subcommittee on agenda and procedure”. Is that fair?
(Amendment agreed to)
(Motion as amended agreed to)
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
We are moving on to the third routine motion regarding reduced quorum.
3:40 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Just to get clarification, it is a bit different from what I've seen before. Can I get the clerk to explain what happens in a reduced quorum situation? Some members on the committee are brand new to Parliament, let alone the committee process, and it probably would be good to have a quick explanation of that.
The second thing is the 10-minute rule at the beginning, what the background of that is and why.
3:45 p.m.
The Clerk
Committees sometimes adopt a routine motion such as this one to permit the committee to receive evidence so as not to delay the witnesses, to enable the witnesses to make their presentations regardless of whether there's quorum or not. So that's why the reduced quorum is there.
In terms of the amount of time granted to witnesses to make opening statements, 10 minutes is a baseline amount of time; however, it is at the committee's discretion or at the discretion of the chair, if the committee delegates the chair that discretion, to be able to alter the time for opening statements as necessary. For example, should the meeting be divided into two one-hour panels, sometimes it's appropriate to be able to hear more witnesses to reduce the time. So that is something the committee can amend within this routine motion or can give the chair the discretion to do as needed.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
This motion, though, doesn't really deal with witness opening statements. It's more to do with the 10-minute waiting period before the meeting starts, in a case of reduced quorum, if there are not enough people present. Is that right?
3:45 p.m.
An hon. member
Yes.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
An hon. member
We all wait for 10 minutes.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Okay. And in this case the chair is one person who has to be there--yes, because obviously they can't hold meetings without the chair there--and then just two other members, one of whom must be opposition.
So to clarify, you could have the chair, one member from the government, and anyone from any of the other three parties?
3:45 p.m.
A voice
Yes.
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Robert Vincent Bloc Shefford, QC
I move an amendment for the sentence to end at “...dont un membre de l'opposition“. We can remove the words that talk about the 10 minutes.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Robert Vincent Bloc Shefford, QC
I move an amendment to remove everything after “...dont un membre de l'opposition”. Everything after that, everything talking about the 10 minutes, would be removed.
3:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Michael Chong
So we have an amendment to the motion. I assume the translation picked that up. Is there any discussion on the amendment?
Monsieur Bouchard.
February 5th, 2009 / 3:45 p.m.
Bloc
Robert Bouchard Bloc Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC
It seems reasonable to me that one of the three people present would always be a member of the opposition. If there are three members of the Conservative party, we really need a member of the opposition. I feel that we would be quite justified in not starting a meeting without a member of the opposition present.
