National Defence Committee on Feb. 4th, 2009

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

Mr. Chair, that is patently not correct. I'm just surprised that....

For the second round, the principle in the committee is that every member gets to question before anybody else questions twice. That doesn't count splitting. You can do whatever you want--anybody can do whatever they want--with their time. But every member gets to speak, in that order, so that assuming everybody takes their question time, every member of the committee has gotten to ask questions before anybody else gets a second kick at the cat.

That's what was accepted last time. The makeup of the committee has changed by one. There's one less Liberal, one more Conservative. It makes perfect sense to do it that way.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thank you.

The amendment is that the last spot in the second round be a Conservative spot, not a Liberal spot. And then after the second round is completed, we go right back to the top on five-minute rounds and start over. The present third-round system is gone.

We're going to vote on that. I think everybody has had an opportunity to say what they wanted.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

I just want to understand the rationale for this again. What you're trying to achieve is an opportunity for every member of the committee to sign on--

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

To have a time slot....

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

--to have an opportunity to speak in order. And you're attempting to do this by the numbers in the House of Commons?

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

The numbers on the committee. Every committee member.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

But you know that the third round never comes.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

It has occasionally. If it did, every committee member should get to speak or question. That's fair, that's logical.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

It's a partisan system of parties so that representatives--

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

But it reflects the House, it reflects the committee. That's the way it is done. If there is a third round, then it advantages the Bloc and the NDP.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

All right, I think we're getting to it.

So at the end of the second round, eleven spots have been taken up, and you're suggesting there will be three Liberal spots, two Bloc spots, one NDP spot, and five Conservative spots. So that gets everybody who's sitting at this table a chance for input before we start the third round, and that's what you're saying. Okay?

(Amendment agreed to)

(Motion as amended agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Mr. Chair, may I just say it's good that you have this list of routine motions. And I would suggest to the subcommittee on agenda and procedure to call Mr. Laurie Hawn to the first meeting, because he will bring his experience, his skill, his knowledge, his wisdom, and his nice style.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Thanks for that.

We've agreed as a committee to deal with the routine motions. Is there a willingness to go any further?

We have a request from Ms. Black to deal with her motions. Are we willing to do that? I'm not saying we're going to deal with them; we'll just listen to what she has to say.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

Okay. I've said it already and I don't need to repeat it. We had the study on post-traumatic stress disorder. I would like to move a motion to reintroduce that evidence so we can finish that work by writing a report.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Is the committee willing to waive the 48 hours' notice to deal with this?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

And my second motion?

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Let's just deal with this.

It's moved by Ms. Black and reads:

That the Committee resume its study on health services provided to Canadian Forces personnel with an emphasis on post-traumatic stress disorder started in the previous session, and that the evidence and documentation received by the committee during the second session of the 39th Parliament on the subject be taken into consideration by the committee in this session.

This puts it into the realm of the steering committee. This is saying what our committee is going to be doing henceforth; I think that's a steering committee function, but that's my opinion.

We have Mr. Hawn and then Mr. Coderre.

[Laurie Hawn, Conservative, Edmonton Centre, AB]

For clarification, the word is “resume”. We're in favour of just reintroducing the evidence, completing the report, not starting it up all over again. The wording says “resume”.

[Dawn Black, NDP, New Westminster—Coquitlam, BC]

I just think it can be dealt with today. I don't know that it would have to go through the steering committee if there is an agreement.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Mr. Coderre, you're on now. Go ahead.

[Denis Coderre, Liberal, Bourassa, QC]

We're jumping the gun here. As I see it, the steering committee needs to meet first before we can start talking about an agenda. I'd like to suggest to my colleague that he move his motions at this time, given the 48-hour rule. I think we're getting ahead of ourselves. We can't discuss specific issues until the steering committee has had an initial meeting. In any event, some recommendations will come out of that meeting and we can discuss motions at the same time. We were discussing procedural motions, not substantive ones.

I move that the committee now adjourn.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

Just a second.

Mr. Blaney, do you have a comment?

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Lévis—Bellechasse, QC]

Even though Ms. Black is a member, the new members of the steering committee might like to hear the suggestions of committee members. That would be interesting and most useful, in my view. It might help shed light on and help us complete the work already undertaken by the committee. This extremely interesting motion warrant our consideration, in my estimation.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Rick Casson]

I know we're going to get this opened up, but I am leaning to agreement with Denis.

Ms. Black is withdrawing her motion. She'll bring it to the subcommittee.