Industry Committee on Feb. 15th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Bonjour à tous. Welcome to the 57th meeting of the Standing Committee on Industry, Science, and Technology.

We'll be dealing with Bill C-501 today in clause-by-clause consideration.

We have with us Mr. Rafferty, who is the sponsor of the bill and who I understand has some amendments as well.

We'll go directly to Mr. Rafferty and we'll be dealing with clause 1.

(On clause 1)

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Thank you very much, Chair, and happy new year to everyone. The last time we met was before Christmas.

If the chair will allow me, I want to make a couple of remarks before we begin.

First I would like to thank the committee, for their cooperation in particular. We added a few hours to discussion here of the bill, and I think they were full and fruitful. The members were very kind to me, being new to this committee and only being here for a short period of time, so I'd like to thank everyone on the committee for that consideration.

As we move forward to the first clause, I want to remind everyone that we had a discussion before Christmas from analysts and from the folks who were sitting here. I don't remember their names, unfortunately.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Rafferty, if you don't mind my interrupting—I apologize—I should introduce our witnesses.

From the Department of Industry we have Colette Downie, director general, marketplace framework policy branch, and Matt Dooley, senior project leader, corporate and insolvency law policy and internal trade.

Please proceed, Mr. Rafferty. I'm sorry about that.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Thank you, and thank you, everyone, for being here.

I'll just remind you that when we first talked about these amendments, it was pretty clear from the analysts who were here and from the folks who were sitting at the table, the policy people, that these amendments, which they had all had a look at, were really a question of clarification. They're certainly not intended to cause any mischief; they're simply clarification of the bill. As everyone knows, when a bill is first written, it may or may not be 100% perfectly well written. Sometimes amendments are necessary to make some clarifications about the intent of the bill. So I thank everyone here for your indulgence on this, and I thank the analysts and others for that clarification back then.

I see that we don't have all the members here, Chair. I don't know what that means exactly, except to say that we may or may not see everybody here. I am concerned, of course, with at least two members being absent who.... Well, I thank Mr. Rota for being here, but the outcome of our discussions today on our clause-by-clause could be impacted greatly by the absence of a few members.

I'm not sure, Chair, how we can proceed in this particular situation. I suppose this is the time set aside for the clause-by-clause and I suppose we have quorum. So, Chair, is it your wish that we go ahead, or do we wait for a few moments to see whether the other members arrive?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Mr. Rafferty, we have quorum. The meeting was published, and the members are well aware of the time of the meeting, so please proceed to move your first amendment.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

All right, I'll certainly move my first amendment.

Because it's in one clause and there are two amendments, do I move them both at once, Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Please move the first amendment. Then it will be up for debate in the committee, and then—

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

I see. Okay.

So I guess...rather than the number, is it “NDP-1” that we're calling the first amendment there?

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

That's correct.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

I would like to move that we accept this amendment.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Okay. Does Mr. Rafferty need to read this amendment into the record? Does everybody have a copy?

Okay, great.

Mr. Lake, you wanted to make a comment?

[Mike Lake, Conservative, Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB]

We are ready to vote, sir.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Seeing no debate, then....

Yes, Mr. Rota?

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

As a point of clarification—I know it's all housekeeping, Mr. Rafferty—could you maybe explain exactly what this does? I know it's just housekeeping, but it's not exactly clear. Could you just point out the highlights of it, if you don't mind?

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

All right.

There are eight amendments, and each of the amendments adjusts the wording slightly. Would that be a fair thing to say?

It's just a slight amendment to some of the wording for clarification, and to clarify exactly what the intent of the bill is. As I said before, when these bills are presented, they're not always 100% perfectly well written, and we're happy that the analysts and others have seen that.

So I guess, Mr. Rota, in response to your question, rather than go through each of those, I'd just like to give you sort of a general impression, a general feeling, that these amendments are in fact in all eight instances just very slight word changes, which will clarify the bill.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Just to clarify, we're voting on the first amendment right now.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

That's right. I think I've put forward the motion on amendment NDP-1.

Chair, I don't know whether there's any more discussion.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

I think it's abundantly clear to all the members here, but for the sake of the members who just arrived, Mr. Rafferty has just moved his first amendment. You have copies in front of you of all the amendments.

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

Chair, I just wanted to point out for the benefit of those of us who got here on time that some of us received information that the meeting was in Room 237-C. We have that in writing. We did not receive an update.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

The agenda says Room 237-C, hence my discussion with Mr. Wallace right after question period.

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

He tried to send me there.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Mike Wallace, Conservative, Burlington, ON]

I point out to the honourable member that I'm calling his riding during an election and telling people where the polling stations are.

[John Rafferty, NDP, Thunder Bay—Rainy River, ON]

Now, Mr. Wallace, you know—

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Order, order.

I understand that we would like to continue this, but I have been notified that notice was sent out, and yes, the venue was changed, and the notice was sent out for the correction of venue. We'll look into it, and see why you would not have received it, but certainly many of the offices did.

Let's proceed.

Is there any debate on amendment NDP-1?

(Amendment negatived)

Mr. Rafferty.