International Trade Committee on May 30th, 2022

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Okay. Can we see the handwritten copy, then? Can you photocopy that and distribute that?

[The Clerk]

I can make a copy. It's in English.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I will leave it to Mr. Savard-Tremblay to decide if this is the right way to go. In my opinion, this is not exactly the appropriate way to proceed in consideration of the two official languages.

It's up to you, Mr. Savard-Tremblay.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

That is the process of the committee. This is nothing unusual for a committee, Mr. Virani. This is very normal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Go ahead, Mr. Masse.

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

[Technical difficulty—Editor] to speak to the motion when it's appropriate, if I may.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Let's get it photocopied quickly. We can always read it into the record again in order to ensure that the translation is done. Then, possibly, we can deal with it.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

Madam Chair, perhaps we could suspend—

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

Hold on. I'm told we need unanimous consent.

[Simon-Pierre Savard-Tremblay, Bloc, Saint-Hyacinthe—Bagot, QC]

I would like a clarification, Madam Chair: what exactly requires unanimous consent?

[The Clerk]

The only thing we need unanimous consent for would be to distribute an English-only copy. If it's read out and interpreted, that's different, but for a paper copy—

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

We don't have unanimous consent, not at all.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Okay. Let's go to the motion, then.

We were offering the paper copy of the motion as a courtesy, not as a requirement for the committee. If you don't want the courtesy, that's up to you.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I think courtesy would actually be distributing something

in both official languages.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

These are the rules of the committee that we're following. We're not breaking any of the rules of the committee.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

We're discussing official languages and—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

We are following the rules of the committee as set up in the Standing Orders, which have been around for years. If you'd been around for years, you'd know that.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

I've been around for seven years, Mr. Hoback.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Why are you surprised then?

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

In those seven years, I've always—

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

I've already talked to Leif and he's okay with it.

[Arif Virani, Liberal, Parkdale—High Park, ON]

If I may, I will finish making my comment.

The Conservative Party always says the right things about official bilingualism. However, when it comes to procedures, they always try to do things in one language. That's what I've noticed.

[Randy Hoback, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

This motion came up today in the committee in light of what happened. We are allowed to present the motion as we have done. We have not broken any orders of precedence or procedure. We've done everything fairly.

I've tried to be courteous to members by giving them a copy in English, because that's the only copy we have. I talked to the member from the Bloc to make sure he was okay with that. I have done my due diligence, Mr. Virani. Maybe you haven't.

[The Chair, Liberal, Judy Sgro]

I think it's more an issue of courtesy that we make sure that everybody has a copy in both languages, so that everyone fully understands what we're asking people to vote for.

Mr. Masse, your hand is up. Do you want to speak to the motion that is on the floor?

[Brian Masse, NDP, Windsor West, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Hopefully, this will help and we can move forward. I'll support the motion, because my understanding of the process for the Auditor General is that the Auditor General is independent and will make the decision to engage with whatever department or review they want to. I have done that as an individual member before on different issues. It's just advice that we can provide the Auditor General.

I think that, sometimes, when the notion of the Auditor General is raised, it creates heightened politics that aren't always necessarily there. For this, I don't think there is anything that we should spend a lot of time on in the sense that we're just asking for advice for a review, which the Auditor General will take under consideration.

Let's leave it at that and move on to other committee business. That's my opinion.