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.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
I think it's actually a relevant motion for what we're discussing today. It's nothing—
February 4th, 2016 / 9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Wait a minute, not necessarily, because we are discussing scheduling and planning. This is relevant to scheduling and planning, thus it can be heard today and it can be voted on today.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Yes, but you can bring any notice into committee if it's relevant to the committee business at hand. We are talking about scheduling. That is the business at hand right now, so it is relevant.
Liberal
Conservative
Liberal
Peter Fonseca Liberal Mississauga East—Cooksville, ON
I just feel, having heard the discussion, that there is a better way forward and that we need to hear from the officials. This is kind of at the last minute. We do have a constituency week coming up in a couple of days. We can all go back to our constituencies and take the opportunity to do our own research, and then come back fresh when we're back in a week and a half from now and get started.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
My understanding is that if a motion is brought forward there's usually a timeline for the next meeting. If there's unanimous consent amongst the whole group.... If it is very critical to do it now, it can be done now only if everybody agrees. That's what I sense. If everybody doesn't agree on this now, the motion is really irrelevant because our next meeting won't be until....
That's my understanding, but let me speak with the clerk.
Technically we cannot. We just looked into it and it requires a 48-hour notice of motion.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Can I seek unanimous consent this one time to hear the motion? Do I have unanimous consent?
Conservative
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Can we do a vote on unanimous consent or do you just do a voice vote on that?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Mark Eyking
If you hear no, then it's not unanimous. I think when you go unanimous all you have to hear is one no. You don't have to record the vote. That's my guess on it.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
Again this is just for notices. It's not for discussion now. It's just to put it on the record:
That the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade undertake a study of the benefits of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement to Canadian business; that the Committee travel to Ukraine to conduct hearings as part of this study; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
Again it's just notice. I just wanted to put it on the record for you. There is no urgency or timeline attached to it.
Conservative
Randy Hoback Conservative Prince Albert, SK
It says:
That the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade undertake a study of the benefits of the Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement to Canadian business; that the Committee travel to Ukraine to conduct hearings as part of this study; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
We have an agreement in place there.
Conservative
Conservative
Dave Van Kesteren Conservative Chatham-Kent—Leamington, ON
I have a couple as well that I feel are important. I think the committee might agree too. It's:
That the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade undertake a study of Canada’s trade partnership with the United States—
I, along with Tracey, are in the western corridor of Ontario
—to examine, among other topics, the Keystone XL Pipeline project and the Detroit-Windsor bridge project; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
We will get some briefing on where we're at with some of these things, as suggested, but that's one that's very important to me.
Second, I have chaired the Canada-Turkey friendship association for a number of years, so my second motion is:
That the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade undertake a study of the benefits of a free trade agreement between Canada and the Republic of Turkey; that as part of this study, the Committee travel to Turkey to conduct hearings; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
Those are my two notices of motions.
Conservative
Dan Albas Conservative Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC
I'm actually glad there's a fellow British Columbian MP here, Mr. Dhaliwal, because this is something we've discussed in the House of Commons, softwood lumber. Obviously in my riding—in Merritt, Princeton, and West Kelowna—all the largest private employers are lumber mills. British Columbia Premier Christy Clark made mention to the Prime Minister in their first communication that softwood lumber was the most important issue for British Columbia because we have 55% of the softwood lumber.
The notice of motion I'd like to give today is:
That the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade undertake a study of the Softwood Lumber Agreement between Canada and the United States; and that the Committee report its findings to the House.
Liberal
Sukh Dhaliwal Liberal Surrey—Newton, BC
Thank you, honourable member, for bringing it forward out of British Columbia. In fact, as the Liberal B.C. caucus, we are meeting with the experts on free trade. I agree that we should study that. That should be part of this committee at some point in time.