Liaison Committee on Nov. 7th, 2013

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jeffrey LeBlanc]

Honourable members, I see that there's a quorum present.

Welcome to the first meeting of the Liaison Committee.

My name is Jeffrey LeBlanc. I'm the Clerk of the Committee.

Your first order of business today is to elect a chair. I am now prepared to receive a motion to that effect.

Mr. Chong.

[Michael Chong, Conservative, Wellington—Halton Hills, ON]

I move that Mr. Allison be a candidate for chair.

[The Clerk]

It's been moved by Mr. Chong that Mr. Allison be elected chair of the committee. Are there any other motions?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

If the committee wishes, we can proceed now to the election of the vice-chair. I am prepared to receive a motion to that effect.

Mr. Preston.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I'd like to nominate David Christopherson as vice-chair.

[The Clerk]

It's been moved by Mr. Preston that Mr. Christopherson be elected vice-chair.

Are there any other motions? Seeing none, is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

Congratulations to both of you.

[An hon. member]

It's a good strong ticket.

[The Clerk]

I now invite Mr. Allison to take the chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

If I could just send everyone to the proposed agenda, the next order of business will be the subcommittee and committee budgets. Then we need to go through routine motions and dispense.... No, actually, we're going to go through the whole agenda, and we have a couple of budget items we'll look at after that.

We're going to start with the subcommittee and committee budgets. We realize that we need the chair, the vice-chair, and five other members. I'm going to start accepting names from the floor.

Mr. Preston.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I would like to nominate Larry Miller. He's not here today, but he has told me that he would like to remain on the subcommittee for budgets, so I will put his name forward.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Warkentin.

[Chris Warkentin, Conservative, Peace River, AB]

I nominate Mr. Preston.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Mr. Dusseault.

[Pierre-Luc Dusseault, NDP, Sherbrooke, QC]

I nominate Pat Martin.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Okay. That's three that we have right now.

Mr. Brown.

[Gord Brown, Conservative, Leeds—Grenville, ON]

I nominate Phil McColeman.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Thank you very much. That's four.

Mr. Preston.

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I don't mean to take all of the votes, but Mr. Warkentin did such a great job on this committee the last time too, and he's really learned to pronounce only two-letter words rather than three—

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Joe Preston, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

—so I would like to put forward Chris Warkentin's name.

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

All right, and our question will be, what are you like when you're drinking...?

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

We have five members. Are there any others?

I'll call the question for the slate of five that we have. All those in favour?

(Motion agreed to)

We're going now move to routine motions: first, that the clerk of the committee be authorized to make the necessary arrangements to provide working meals for the committee and its subcommittee. Are we all in favour of that?

(Motion agreed to)

Thank you very much.

Next: that the committee retain, as needed and at the discretion of the chair—

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Conservative, Dean Allison]

Yes, sir.

[Royal Galipeau, Conservative, Ottawa—Orléans, ON]

I raise the question, please. I understand that we're in camera now.