Natural Resources Committee on Oct. 30th, 2023

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

Mr. Sorbara, the motion was moved on October 30 by you.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

How many meetings have we held on this motion, the subamendment, and so forth since October 30, when we could have studied...and invited witnesses to this meeting?

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I have a point of order, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

Is this a point of order?

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

It sounds like I'm being interrupted on the other side, because they don't want to actually recognize the fact that we had—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

You're being interrupted, because you don't know what a point of order is, Francesco. It's not a point of order.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

It's not for you to judge what I do or do not know, Garnett. Please go back there. Thank you very much.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Certainly you're speaking as if you don't know. Maybe you know, but you are speaking to the contrary.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

Colleagues, this may be a nice time for a reminder for everybody here. When we acknowledge a point of order, we have one mic on at a time and one person speaking into the mic at a time, because it is difficult for our interpreters to interpret multiple colleagues on committee speaking into the mic. I would ask colleagues, for the benefit of the interpreters to be able to interpret in both official languages, that I hear a point of order from one individual before proceeding to another.

Thank you, Mr. Sorbara, for your point of order.

Colleagues, I just want to remind everybody that we did have a motion moved on the floor on October 30 by Mr. Sorbara. We subsequently had an amendment moved and a subamendment moved, and another subamendment moved by Mr. Falk, which we are currently debating now. We have been debating this since October 30. Today, we're at December 4. I think that provides clarity on times and dates for everybody, and the number of meetings we can add up in between, and the hours that we've been working on this here at committee.

Now, hopefully that addresses any concerns that members had.

I will go back to Mr. Genuis, who has the floor.

Mr. Genuis, go ahead.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate your generosity in restoring the floor to me, which of course is consistent with the rules.

Clearly, Mr. Sorbara's point was not a point of order. It was a point of debate, and I'll respond to the point of debate before continuing—

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

I have a point of order, Chair.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Oh, here we go again.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

Mr. Genuis, I'll ask you to hold again.

Go head, Mr. Sorbara, on a point of order.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

I'd like to raise a point of relevance, please, for Mr. Genuis.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

I would ask colleagues to—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I was responding to your point. Clearly, it's relevant, if yours was.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

Mr. Genuis, I'll ask you to hold, please, until I acknowledge you.

On that point of order that's provided, Mr. Genuis, I'll just ask you to keep it relevant to the subamendment. Thank you.

Go ahead, Mr. Genuis.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Thank you.

I think we may want to set a record for how long a person can speak before getting interrupted by another point of order.

Am I still good?

Chair, I'll say another sentence and see if Mr. Sorbara has any objections. He said it was a point of order—it was clearly not a point of order—when he intervened to claim that it was somehow a matter of order for him to....

The camera's pre-emptively gone to you.

Mr. Chair, Mr. Sorbara was saying that—

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

On a point of order, Chair—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Here we go. I knew it was coming.

[The Chair, Liberal, George Chahal]

I have Mr. Sorbara on a point of order.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

I didn't want to get too far into it.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

I'm very thrilled that Mr. Genuis is speaking about me, as the MP for the beautiful and wonderful riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge.

I would love for the committee to turn its attention to the millions of hard-working Canadian workers who would benefit—

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

That's precisely what I was talking about before you interrupted.

[Francesco Sorbara, Liberal, Vaughan—Woodbridge, ON]

—from Bill C-50, get to voting on amendments or subamendments and so forth, and get the conversation on relevance.

This is not about me, Garnett. This is about Canadians, about labour and about working together with industry, and that is what Bill C-50 is.

It's not about Francesco, or about anybody in this room. It should be about them, so let's get back to relevance.

Thank you, sir.