International Trade Committee on Feb. 5th, 2009

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

If members of the committee are opposed to the proposal I brought forward from the official languages committee, that's one thing, but a reasonable amendment to address that inequity is something I think you as chair should recognize.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

All right, I've heard that point. We have a couple of people who wanted to address this point.

Mr. Keddy and then Mr. Silva.

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

Mr. Chair, was Mr. Harris first?

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

No, I think we have a speakers list.

Oh, Mr. Harris was first? I'm sorry.

Mr. Harris.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

I had wanted a point of order too.

I don't know what Mr. Julian is doing. Was he making another motion? He made a first amendment, which failed, and then we went back to the original motion, and that passed. What was Mr. Julian just doing? Was he wanting to challenge the chair? He didn't say that. Was he wanting to make another amendment? He didn't say that either.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

Yes, he did.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

What was the point, other than to waste a little bit of time? This is one of the reasons, Mr. Chair--

[Gerald Keddy, Conservative, South Shore—St. Margaret's, NS]

There was no amendment on the motion that passed.

[Dick Harris, Conservative, Cariboo—Prince George, BC]

This is one of the reasons we wanted to put a motion in to restrict dilatory motions until at least 15 minutes before the close of any meeting.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

That's fine. I appreciate it.

Mr. Keddy, did you have something you wanted to add?

Mr. Silva.

[Mario Silva, Liberal, Davenport, ON]

The point has already been made. I'm a little bit unclear. If there's a motion that has already been approved...you can't amend motions that have been approved, unless you want to bring up a notice to the committee that you want to have a different motion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I wanted to see if Mr. Julian wanted to challenge the chair. He had a point to make and I think he's made it. I think we've heard the point and we're going to have to let it go at that.

[Peter Julian, NDP, Burnaby—New Westminster, BC]

I've made my point, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Do I sense a consensus of the committee that we can move on?

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Indeed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Julian. I'm sorry that we weren't able to accommodate that one.

I think that does it, doesn't it? That's it for routine motions.

Mr. Cannis had something to add, and I think we also wanted to have a quick look at where we go from here in terms of Tuesday.

Mr. Cannis.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I just wanted to quickly ask you if and when we could have the minister here for the supplementary estimates presentation to the committee and if it could be as soon as possible.

[The Chair, Conservative, Lee Richardson]

I asked the same question, Mr. Cannis, just for the information of the committee. Let me give the floor to clerk for a moment, and she might explain.

Oh, I'm sorry, Jean-Marie.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jean-Marie David]

The supplementaries are being examined by the foreign affairs committee for the international trade branch, so this committee does not have any supplementaries.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Angela Crandall]

All of the supplementary estimates are referred to the foreign affairs committee. The department is the Department of Foreign Affairs, and international trade is a branch of it, so the House refers the supplementary estimates to the foreign affairs committee.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Given that we are a standing committee, I thought we would have that privilege.

[An hon. member]

Do we have the right?

We do have the right to call the minister.

[The Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Angela Crandall]

We don't have an order of reference. That's all I'm saying. The committee can study the subject matter of the supplementary estimates, but the committee does not have an order of reference to study the estimates per se.

[John Cannis, Liberal, Scarborough Centre, ON]

Can we call the minister, Mr. Chairman? Can the clerk clarify that?