Evidence of meeting #35 for International Trade in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was julian.
A recording is available from Parliament.
1 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Mr. Julian, I'm sorry to interrupt you here. I want to simply let the officials know that they can leave, because this meeting ends as soon as the debate on this motion ends. We don't need their presence for that.
Thank you very much for your patience, all of you. If you'd like to stay for lunch, of course, you're welcome.
Mr. Julian, please continue.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
No, Mr. Chair. I did take a breath and I'm going to actually take some water.
I would like then to come back to the fifth clause of his very extensive, rather mean-spirited motion, I would say--mean-spirited to the principle of having committees actually do their due diligence and do their work; that is, that clause-by-clause consideration of Bill C-24 be completed before considering any other committee business.
Well, Mr. Chair, this is perhaps the most important element. We have other committee business that has already been submitted, and as you are well aware, the committee business that I gave adequate notice of motion on...in fact, in one case we've had adequate notice of motion that goes back exactly two weeks. So we've had more than adequate notice of motion on these, yet if we look at his fifth clause that I'm proposing we delete, essentially what we are doing is eliminating any possibility of hitting these important bits of committee business that are already effectively on the agenda, because notice of motion has already been sent out.
First off, there is the issue of the motion that calls on the Government of Canada to stem the current market disruption, in specific categories, in the Canadian apparel industry, by immediately invoking article 242 of China's accession protocol to the WTO and putting in place restrictions or safeguards on the growth of specific categories of apparel imports from China.
This is a motion that I submitted on Tuesday, in good form, and the impact of the fifth clause--
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Mr. Julian, relevance. We've had a member call for relevance, but the chair was doing that anyway. Mr. Julian, if you stray from the content of your proposed amendment to this motion, I will go to the vote.
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Mr. Chair, this is completely, distinctly relevant, and I would certainly say you're keeping a much tighter rein on me than we had at the environment committee, when the Conservative member was filibustering there. I'm certainly not filibustering; I'm adding content.
1:05 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
You are being extremely severe. The reality is that doing clause-by-clause consideration before considering any other committee business destroys the possibility of having this particular motion, which was brought forward on Tuesday, discussed by the committee.
The textile industry is in crisis. There have been thousands of jobs lost.
By the way, I took part in Montreal two weeks ago...
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Ted Menzies Conservative Macleod, AB
On a point of order, can I ask where in this motion the word “textiles” is? Why are we dealing with textiles?
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. This is totally relevant to the discussion. He wants to prevent us from discussing the motion I brought forward on Tuesday. It is very relevant. His motion wants to foreclose any discussion of the apparel and textile industry and we cannot countenance such a motion.
It is not only the motion that is at issue. Mr. Cardin wants to amend it. It is very important, because it will improve the motion, but this action, this motion would exclude any possibility to consider this resolution, however important, before concluding clause by clause. If more amendments come in, this could last until the end of November.
Therefore this clause makes no sense.
The second motion that would fall by the wayside if we passed his motion without amendment...
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
Helena Guergis Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
I would like to introduce a motion that perhaps we go public, so that we're not in camera and Canadians can see what's actually going on here.
1:05 p.m.
Conservative
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
It's not televised. We can't make it televised that quickly. Certainly the meeting on Tuesday could be.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Helena Guergis Conservative Simcoe—Grey, ON
I'd like to put forward a motion for Tuesday's meeting to be televised publicly.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
You don't need a motion for that. I will ensure that it is televised.
1:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP Burnaby—New Westminster, BC
Mr. Chair, can I continue the important discussion of Mr. Menzies' motion?
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Please continue, Mr. Julian. Just do stick to the debate on your proposed amendments to the motion. If you stray, I will go to the question.