Evidence of meeting #40 for Industry, Science and Technology in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was workers.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Thank you very much.
I'm not sure if that answers your question, MP Masse.
11:45 a.m.
NDP
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Madam Chair, I invite you to proceed to a vote. If this amendment passes, I will simply withdraw my motion, because I believe our committee has other essential work as well. Under the circumstances, the intent was not only for our committee to be able to quickly get this bill to the House, but also to be able to report back to the House on all the studies that we have to do, including the study on Internet accessibility and affordability. If we were to pass the motion as amended, our schedule as a committee would render all of our work null and void.
I wanted our committee to work efficiently. If the motion is amended in this way, I will simply withdraw it, so that we keep the original schedule.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Procedurally, Monsieur Lemire, it would require unanimous consent to pull back your motion which is on the floor.
MP Erskine-Smith has his hand up. He'd like to speak to the amendment.
Go ahead, MP Erskine-Smith.
May 25th, 2021 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I'll just speak to Sébastien's point.
It might make sense for there to be unanimous consent for us to move on from this conversation. You have a schedule, Chair. You've circulated it. I don't know the number of hours entirely, but I think the full three meetings would take us even beyond what you have scheduled, from my recollection, at least from hearing from witnesses. I know you're including clause-by-clause consideration in your schedule until the end of June.
It strikes me it would be much more efficient to stick to the current schedule that we have, and then to circle back at some point. If we deem that more witnesses are required, that we haven't heard from enough, we can have that conversation and cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, we should proceed with your expedited schedule that you've already circulated. That would be the fastest for the Bloc, who are concerned about expediting, and obviously that includes hearing from witnesses.
I know we need unanimous consent, but I'm perfectly okay with forgetting we had this conversation for the last 20 minutes and moving on to ask questions of the sponsor.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Mr. Lemire, I see that your hand is raised. Would you like to speak?
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Okay.
I'd like to proceed now. We have an amendment on the floor that we will have three meetings dedicated to this study, so the motion as amended, as read by the clerk, so we would go immediately to clause-by-clause consideration after hearing from witnesses at three separate meetings.
There's one thing I wanted to say before we go to the vote. We do understand that doing so will delay the review of the draft reports that we have on our schedule. I wanted to mention that as we will have to try to figure out what we can do in terms of timelines.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Emmanuella Lambropoulos Liberal Saint-Laurent, QC
Would it be possible for you to ask for unanimous consent to withdraw the motion or do we have to go through with these votes at this point?
11:45 a.m.
The Clerk
It's in the hands of the committee. If the member wishes to seek unanimous consent to withdraw the motion, that's all it would require.
11:45 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Let's go to a vote on the amendment, please. Depending on whether it passes or not, we'll see if we vote on the motion. We will follow procedure.
11:45 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
One moment. I'm just going to go back to the clerk quickly, because we have some conflicting information coming back. We have an amendment to the original motion on the floor, so I will ask for a vote on the amendment.
(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])
With that, we have the original motion as amended now before us. I'm going to the clerk, because there is a request by the member to seek unanimous consent to pull back his motion, which is what I understood. I don't know if that is even possible.
Mike.
11:50 a.m.
The Clerk
Yes, now would be the appropriate time. If Monsieur Lemire chooses, he can request the unanimous consent of the committee to withdraw his motion.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
I just want to be clear on what we're giving consent to.
If this motion is withdrawn, when will the three meetings on this bill occur?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
If he withdraws the motion as amended, we will proceed as we were normally going to proceed. That's my understanding. We will still be able to do the meetings that we tried to plan. I think we sent an email out last week. Those will still go ahead. There is time planned for them, for witnesses and for the draft reports.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
Mr. Lemire, are you seeking unanimous consent to withdraw your motion?
11:50 a.m.
Bloc
Sébastien Lemire Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Before I do that, Madam Chair, I'd like to ask the clerk what the easiest way to proceed would be. Would it be to remove the word “immediately” from my motion, so that the witnesses would appear afterwards on the days left on the calendar? If so, I would simply move to take out the word “immediately” from my motion.
At this point, I feel like the purpose of my speech has been completely distorted. If the amendment alone causes the other work of the committee to lapse, I find that profoundly ridiculous.
If you tell me that I need unanimous consent to withdraw my motion, I will call for a vote on it. I will then move to amend my motion by removing the word “immediately”, with the expectation that the witnesses will appear at the end of June, after our committee has finished considering its various reports, as was intended.
If we want to play the procedure game, I will do that too.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
I need to check with the clerk.
If you seek unanimous consent to withdraw your motion, we will no longer be able to vote on the motion.
I'm going to suspend for one moment so I can confer with the clerk on this.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sherry Romanado
We're going to resume, and I'm going to turn it over to the clerk to explain where we are, and what the options are.
Go ahead, Mike.
