International Trade Committee on Nov. 15th, 2007

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

Right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

—a second member from the Liberal Party—

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

Right.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

—and a member from the other opposition party. In this case that would be —

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

They don't have another one. They only have one.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

No, in this case another member from the Bloc.

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

Essentially, it would be the chair and the vice-chairs, so it would end up with two Conservatives, two Liberals, one Bloc, one NDP.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Yes, right.

We have a motion on the floor for discussion.

[John Maloney, Liberal, Welland, ON]

Mr. Chair, the parliamentary secretary represents the government and represents the minister. I take exception to him or her being on the steering committee, so I would oppose the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Is there any further discussion?

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

I would have to remark that this hasn't been the Liberal Party's position; it certainly wasn't last year in the Standing Committee on Finance. One year before, when the Liberals were in power, it wasn't their position. I have to make that observation. The parliamentary secretary was on the steering committee.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Okay. You can make that observation when the chair recognizes you, Mr. Pallister.

Monsieur Cardin.

[Serge Cardin, Bloc, Sherbrooke, QC]

Mr. Chairman, I would like to keep the same wording that we had last year for the previous committee.

The motion clearly states that the committee shall elect a Chair, who shall be a Member of the government party, two Vice-Chairs, one of whom is a Liberal and the other a Bloc Member, and a Member of the other opposition party, potentially an NDP Member. Keeping the same wording ensures that the four parties are represented. Thus we can hope that discussions in committee are less protracted if all parties are already aware of what has been discussed and of what is going on.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Any further discussion?

Mr. Miller.

[Larry Miller, Conservative, Bruce—Grey—Owen Sound, ON]

Yes.

I don't want to waste a lot of time on this, but if this amendment were to pass, this in no way puts the opposition parties at a disadvantage. They're still outnumbered. It lets the chairman do his job; it's as simple as that. So I speak in favour of the motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I see.

Mr. Miller takes it that the chairman is neutral, so we would not have a Conservative Party representative at the subcommittee. Nice point.

Mr. Masse.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

What I found in the other committees I've been part of is if the subcommittee becomes too large it almost defeats the sense of the subcommittee. So I'm opposed to this as well. Although I appreciate the suggestion, I can't support it.

(Amendment negatived)

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Is there any further discussion on the main motion?

Mr. Cannan.

[Ron Cannan, Conservative, Kelowna—Lake Country, BC]

I'd like to comment, Mr. Chair.

Last time, the subcommittee actually didn't work. We ended up having a committee of the whole. Hopefully, it will be a little bit more functional this time.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

The motion is to accept the subcommittee as was distributed by the clerk.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

We are now on reduced quorum: that the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least three members are present, including one member of the opposition, and if no member of the opposition is present ten minutes after the designated start of the meeting, the meeting may proceed.

The motion is moved by Mr. Maloney.

That's pretty routine and usual. Is there any discussion?

Yes, Mr. Allison.

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

I'm once again drawing from my experience in another committee. I know that when we were out of town for the human rights committee it was difficult sometimes to get quorum to hear witnesses. So I'd like to add to it that should we be outside the parliamentary precinct the committee not be required to wait any more than 15 minutes before it can receive evidence and hear witnesses. That would be my suggestion.

When we were in Montreal we were not able to hear witnesses as a result of having only half of our committee travelling and not having all the members there at the time. Leave it the way it is, but when we're off the parliamentary precincts I would recommend that we would be able to hear witnesses, and that we start after 15 minutes if we don't have a quorum to hear the witnesses.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

The clerk has just brought to my attention here a draft clause. Let me read it out, because I think it may capture what you're trying to achieve.

In the case of previously scheduled meetings taking place outside the parliamentary precinct, the committee members in attendance shall only be required to wait for 15 minutes following the designated start of the meeting before they may proceed to hear witnesses and receive evidence, regardless of whether opposition or government members are present.

Is that what you had in mind?

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

Yes, that would be good.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Fine. Is everyone clear there?

Monsieur Cardin.