International Trade Committee on Nov. 15th, 2007

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Chad Mariage]

Honourable members, I see that we have quorum.

Before we proceed, I want to introduce myself for those of you who don't know me. My name is Chad Mariage. I'm going to be the clerk of the committee. This is Erica Pereira, a new colleague and a new clerk, who will be shadowing the work of the committee.

With that said, pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), I am now ready to proceed to the election of the position of chair. I should note that as the clerk I will be presiding over the proceedings but I am not able to receive any other motion, other than that for the election of chair, or to entertain points of order or to participate in debate. With that said, I'm ready to receive motions.

Mr. Allison.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

I'd like to nominate Lee Richardson for chair.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Allison moves that Mr. Richardson be elected chair.

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Is there debate? There's no debate allowed, is there?

[The Clerk]

Are there any other motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Clerk]

I declare Mr. Richardson duly elected chair of the committee.

Before I invite Mr. Richardson to take the chair, if it's the committee's wish, I'll proceed to the election of the vice-chairs.

That said, the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition. Do I have any motions?

Mr. Temelkovski.

[Lui Temelkovski, Liberal, Oak Ridges—Markham, ON]

I nominate John Maloney as vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Temelkovski moves that Mr. Maloney be elected first vice-chair. Are there any other motions? Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Maloney duly elected first vice-chair.

I can now proceed with the election of a second Vice-Chair. Pursuant to the Standing Orders, the second Vice-Chair must be a Member of an opposition party other than the Official Opposition.

I am ready to receive motions to that effect.

Mr. Malo.

[Luc Malo, Bloc, Verchères—Les Patriotes, QC]

Mr. Clerk, I would like to nominate Mr. Serge Cardin for election to the position of second Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on International Trade.

[The Clerk]

Mr. Malo moves that Mr. Cardin be elected second Vice-Chair.

Are there any other motions?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

[The Clerk]

Congratulations to all of you.

I now invite Mr. Richardson to take the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you.

We will begin. The meeting is in order, so we will just commence with the orders of the day.

We've done the first one, election of the chair, and if it is the wish of the committee, we can proceed to discuss agreed routine motions. Is there an interest in doing that? Have I some consensus? All right, then I'd like to proceed.

We have had distributed to us by the clerk a format for agreed routine motions. That is CIIT-39/1. Has everyone received a copy of that? If not, would the clerk see to it?

Just to be sure, we're going to issue additional copies to everyone and we'll proceed from there.

It would be my suggestion that we proceed in a clause-by-clause manner with this, following the format that has been in fact distributed by the clerk.

If that's agreeable to everybody, the first one would be services of analysts from the Library of Parliament. Can I have a motion? Okay, we have a motion to accept that one as it is. Is there any discussion?

Monsieur Cardin.

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I merely have a suggestion. Far be it for me to instruct you on how to direct the committee's proceedings, but I was wondering if possibly your first question could pertain to the extension of all routine motions passed by the previous committee. If everyone is in agreement on this, then we can proceed in this fashion. Otherwise, we will have to address each individual item.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I think that's a good suggestion, but my sense is there may be some difference of views. We can proceed rather quickly, but I think there is going to be some discussion on a couple of them.

If it's agreeable, I think we'll have to go through them. We can go through them quite quickly, I think, but there may be some changes that some members may wish to bring up before the committee.

The suggestion from Monsieur Cardin was that we would in fact just agree to them all without discussion. It occurs to me from previous discussions that there may be some views that some members may wish to discuss—specifics of individual clauses—so I think we're going to have to go through them one by one. I think we can proceed rather quickly.

We have a motion on the floor to accept the motion on services of analysts from the Library of Parliament as it is. Is there agreement?

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Next is the motion on the subcommittee on agenda and procedure: that the subcommittee on agenda and procedure be composed of the chair, the two vice-chairs, and a member of the other opposition party.

Mr. Maloney moves that.

Is there discussion?

Go ahead, Mr. Pallister.

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Folks, my previous experience was with the finance committee, so some of my suggestions are just going to emanate from what we did on the finance committee, and we can discuss whether we like that or not.

On the steering committee we also had the parliamentary secretary, a second member from the Liberal Party, and a member from the NDP as well, so it was a little different from this. I think the advantage is it makes it easier to get quorum for the steering committee, and it also beefs up the committee a little bit in terms of broader discussion.

Do I have to propose an amendment, Mr. Chairman, or what procedure would you like?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

That's how we want to proceed; sure. What would your amendment be?

[Brian Pallister, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

As opposed to what we have here, I'm just adding the parliamentary secretary and one member from the Liberal Party to the makeup of the steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

As I take it, the subcommittee would then be composed of the chair, the two vice-chairs, and a member of the other opposition party.

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

That's already there. All you'd be adding is the parliamentary secretary and another Liberal.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

It's that the subcommittee on agenda and procedure be composed of the chair—

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

I'm sorry, I stumbled over that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

—the two vice-chairs—

[Dean Allison, Conservative, Niagara West—Glanbrook, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

—the parliamentary secretary—