Evidence of meeting #1 for Liaison in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was wappel.
May 11th, 2006 / 1:10 p.m.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Marie-Andrée Lajoie
Ladies and gentlemen, we will start.
Honourable members of the committee, I see a quorum.
In accordance with Standing Order 107, our first item of business is the election of the chair.
I am ready to receive motions to this effect.
Mr. Casson.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
1:10 p.m.
The Clerk
Are there other nominations?
Is the committee in agreement with this nomination?
1:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
1:10 p.m.
The Clerk
(Motion agreed to)
Before I give the chair to Mr. Allison, we have to elect a vice-chair, and I also have to preside over the election of the vice-chair.
Can I have nominations for the position of vice-chair?
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The Clerk
Mr. Szabo nominates Mr. Wappel.
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Some hon. members
Hear, hear!
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The Clerk
(Motion agreed to)
Thank you very much.
I will now ask Mr. Allison to take his position as the chair of the liaison committee.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
I call this meeting to order.
You all have an agenda in front of you. Let's look at number three. We need seven members for a subcommittee on committee budgets, so we need to pass a motion now to come up with seven individuals who will be looking after and making recommendations back to the main committee on the budgets of the committees that are being brought forward.
Do we have some nominations?
Mr. Wappel.
1:10 p.m.
Liberal
Tom Wappel Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
This is sort of an informal committee, so I don't think we should stand on too much procedure. I think it would be logical that the chair and the vice-chair be on the committee. That would leave a minimum of five. I think the people who are interested should simply put up their hands, if I may make that suggestion, obviously bearing in mind that the Conservatives would want to be in the majority.
Just for those who have not been on the committee before and don't know, all of the budgets of all of the committees come before this committee. The subcommittee on budgets examines those, using a variety of criteria, and makes certain recommendations that then come to the full committee. Then the budgets are discussed again, with the recommendations of the subcommittee.
With those comments, I would certainly think the chairman and the vice-chairman should be on that subcommittee.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Thank you, Mr. Wappel.
I've just been informed here that the chair and the vice-chair are suggested, along with three government and two opposition members.
Mr. Anders.
1:10 p.m.
Conservative
Gerry Ritz Conservative Battlefords—Lloydminster, SK
How much of a time commitment would there be? It's going to vary, but....
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Liberal
1:10 p.m.
The Clerk
Basically the liaison committee is scheduled, if needed, to meet once a month as a full liaison committee. The subcommittee might be meeting more often to consider some budget, but we're not talking about regular biweekly meetings or anything of that nature.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
It always starts with just one meeting a month.
All right, so I have Mr. Rajotte as one of the....
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
James Rajotte Conservative Edmonton—Leduc, AB
Mr. Chair, I'll serve if need be, but I think I'd follow Mr. Wappel's suggestion, and if there are members who want to be part of this committee, I would of course defer to them.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
That's a definite “maybe”. Good.
Ms. Sgro has volunteered, and Mr. Lauzon.
We're up to two definites and one maybe, all right?
Now we have Mr. Merrifield and Mr. Hanger.
Mr. Rajotte, you have been bumped out by....
We need one more opposition member. Is there someone from the opposition who would be interested in sitting on that committee?
Do we have another Liberal? Mr. Szabo, thank you very much.
I now move that the chair, the vice-chair, Mr. Hanger, Mr. Lauzon, Mr. Merrifield, Ms. Sgro, and Mr. Szabo comprise the subcommittee on committee budgets.
(Motion agreed to)
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
We'll move on to item number 4 in the agenda, “Meetings of the Committee”. It reads “that the meetings of the Liaison Committee be held the first Thursday of each month at 1 p.m. and that a working meal be paid out of the Committee's budget at the discretion of the Chair”.
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
Brian Pallister Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Can we make it clear that we're not meeting the first Thursday of July, August, September, other months?
1:15 p.m.
Conservative
1:15 p.m.
Liberal
Tom Wappel Liberal Scarborough Southwest, ON
Mr. Chair, I don't want to be a pain, but the committee traditionally met from one till two--two o'clock, of course, being question period most times. It never started at one, because people kind of wandered in. So there was never an immediate quorum at exactly one o'clock, and there was not the opportunity to consider the later budget requests, because people were leaving or we would lose quorum or something like that.
I'm wondering if we could perhaps try to start at 12:30, if at all possible, and then maybe peter out at about a quarter to two, so those who have SOs and those who have questions and things like that....
Now, of course, the problem is there may be committees that are sitting, and I don't know that, but I can just tell committee members that between one and two is a very short period of time to deal with the requests that have to be dealt with, especially when it doesn't start at one.
