Evidence of meeting #1 for International Trade in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Rémi Bourgault
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.
I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions, cannot entertain points of order, nor participate in debate.
We can now proceed to the election of the chair.
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party.
I'm ready to receive motions for the chair.
Conservative
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Hoback that Mr. Eyking be elected as chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Eyking duly elected chair of the committee, and I invite Mr. Eyking to take the chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
I'm honoured and humbled to be your chair. Many of you know my background. I've been here 15 years with some of you. I have been on many committees. I co-chaired many committees. As many of you know this is going to be a very important committee for government, the people of Canada, and the world. We're going to be active and we're going to be meeting a lot of people. I'm going to be fair in what I do, and I'm going to be punctual most of the time, and sometimes maybe I'll be more lenient if it's an important topic.
I won't get into that now. I think right now I'm going to pass it over to the clerk to continue because we still need two vice-chairs. Is everybody agreed that we pass it over to the clerk?
The Clerk
Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.
I'm now prepared to receive motions for the first vice-chair.
The Clerk
It has been moved by Mr. Dhaliwal that Mr. Hoback be elected as first vice-chair of the committee.
Are there any further motions?
(Motion agreed to)
I declare the motion carried and Mr. Hoback duly elected first vice-chair of the committee.
The Clerk
Pursuant to standing order 106(2) the second vice-chair must be a member of an opposition party other than the official opposition.
I am now ready to receive motions for the second vice-chair.
The Clerk
It is moved by Mr. Peterson that Ms. Ramsey be elected as second vice-chair of the committee.
(Motion agreed to)
The Clerk
I declare the motion carried and Ms. Ramsey duly elected second vice-chair of the committee.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
Thank you, Clerk.
Congratulations to the vice-chairs. Sometimes I might not be here and I will need you to step in. I'll give you my personal cellphone number in case you ever need to call me or if you have questions. I'd appreciate it if I could have your personal number so that I can call you in case I can't be here. That would be a good way to start.
Even though I've been at hundreds of committee meetings, I'm still new as chair, so I won't mind if someone corrects me on procedure. I'm sure the clerk will keep an eye on things.
There are two things I would like to see done today, and the first is routine motions. We have many new MPs here, but we also have many people new to the trade committee. Most committees, after electing their chair and vice-chairs, start off with routine motions. Routine motions effectively set the template for how we are supposed to operate through this Parliament. If we can get through the routine motions all right, I'd like to get some idea of our first meetings.
But we'll get to that later.
My understanding is that there are a couple of different ways to deal with routine motions. I see about 10 motions here. We'll go through them, somebody will make a motion, and then we can pass them. Either I can go through them or they can come from the floor.
How shall we proceed, Clerk? Do we start with—
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
To get it started, I'll move the first motion, which deals with the services of analysts from the Library of Parliament. I move:
That the Committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the Chair, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist it in its work.
Liberal
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
With regard to the subcommittee on agenda and procedure, I move:
That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be composed of five members including the Chair, the two Vice-Chairs and two members of the government; quorum of the Subcommittee shall consist of at least three members, one of whom shall be one from the government, one from the opposition; one member of the Subcommittee shall be permitted to have one assistant attend any meetings of the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure; and in addition, each party shall be permitted to have one staff member from the House officer attend any meetings.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Thank you.
Mr. Eyking, you've been here 15 years. I've been here seven or eight years.
I've been on committees that had subcommittees and on committees that didn't. I found that with the committees that had subcommittees, they'd go through, figure out a schedule, and debate it amongst themselves in the subcommittee. That might tie up a meeting. Then they'd bring it back to the committee and all of a sudden they'd spend another meeting having the exact same debate all over again.
My suggestion is that we do not have a subcommittee, and that the committee as a whole take on the task of what we're going to do in future.
That would be my proposal.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
We can get more comments, but I agree with you, Mr. Hoback. I've seen it. If you have a good working committee, you don't need the subcommittee. Many times it comes up all over again; you're right.
If there's no more comment on it, we can leave out the part about the subcommittee.
