Official Languages Committee on Feb. 25th, 2020

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

Should I be the one to move the motion?

[The Clerk]

You may move the motion.

[Mario Beaulieu, Bloc, La Pointe-de-l'Île, QC]

I think everyone agrees.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

An amendment would be much less complicated since a motion would come later. A lot of water may flow under the bridge between now and then.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

I have a question for the clerk.

According to our procedures, should the motion be moved 48 hours in advance or is that not necessary?

[The Clerk]

It is not necessary, because the study is ongoing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

So I'm asking the clerk what the easiest and quickest way is to say that the committee has to report to the House at the end.

[The Clerk]

You could move a motion suggesting that the committee produce a report on the enumeration of rights holders after hearing witnesses on February 27, March 10 and 12.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

You read my mind.

[Joël Godin, Conservative, Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC]

Can you say it again, Mr. Arseneault?

[Some hon. members]

Ha, ha!

[The Clerk]

Have you noted it?

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

That is exactly what I wanted to say.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Mr. Angus, you have the floor.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you. I often end up saying in the House that I'm the only anarchist in the world who wants to follow all the rules.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Right.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I've never heard of our amending or adding to a motion once we've passed it. The motion has been passed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

That's right.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

I would think that we have goodwill around the table to just do a report. I don't know if we have to officially tell ourselves that we're doing a report.

In any committee I've been on, I've always pushed to have a report because people should hear what we're doing. I would just say that we're all in agreement. I don't think it's going to be controversial. I expected the report. I don't think we need another motion to add to the motion.

[René Arseneault, Liberal, Madawaska—Restigouche, NB]

All right, but then we need days or hours to produce the report and to work on that report. We have to go through it.

[Emmanuella Lambropoulos, Liberal, Saint-Laurent, QC]

Right.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

We haven't even come up with our witness list. Let's get our witnesses. Let's look at it. If we decide that someone has 800 witnesses and it's problematic, then we'll talk about that. If we have a few witnesses, it's going to be pretty straightforward. This isn't a big one.

[The Chair, Liberal, Emmanuel Dubourg]

Okay.

Mr. Généreux, you have the floor.