Evidence of meeting #52 for Official Languages in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meetings.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Do we have unanimous consent for Mr. Beaulieu to withdraw his motion for the requested meeting pursuant to Standing Order 106(4)?
Does anyone object?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
We have an objection. Therefore, we must debate your motion, Mr. Beaulieu.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Excuse me, Mr. Chair. Could you check again for unanimous consent?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
We don't have unanimous consent, but we must have it to withdraw the motion.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Let's wait and see. One of our colleagues is consulting other people in the room about this. That is not what I understood from Mr. Serré.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
We must follow procedure, Mr. Serré. You understand procedure, don't you?
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
One moment, please. The Chair is speaking right now.
The people watching us and those in the room need to hear that parliamentarians respect each other in the situation we have today. Let's stick to procedure, period.
I will ask the question again. Mr. Beaulieu told us that he was prepared to withdraw his motion. To do that, we need unanimous consent. I'm asking the question one last time.
Do we have unanimous consent for Mr. Beaulieu to withdraw his motion?
Before we go any further, I believe Mr. Drouin would like to say something.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Francis Drouin Liberal Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
I'd like to request a recorded division.
Mr. Beaulieu requested a meeting pursuant to Standing Order 106(4), and now we're withdrawing his motion. This makes no sense.
We're going to vote on the motion he decided to introduce. Then we can move on.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Procedurally, we don't have unanimous consent, so we won't revisit this. We therefore have Mr. Beaulieu's motion before us.
Mr. Godin, you have the floor.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, I find it really peculiar that we're wasting time like this. We asked that the motion be withdrawn to expedite the process, and now we're asking for a recorded division.
That's what I had to say. I'll let people be the judge of it.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Thank you, Mr. Godin.
In reality, we have a motion before us pursuant to Standing Order 106(4), and it should be treated as such.
So let's vote on it.
(Motion negatived: nays 10; yeas 1)
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
I'd like to introduce a motion. Once again, for the wording, I have no ill intent, but I'm asking that my colleagues cooperate to get it worded correctly so that it's compliant and in order.
I move that, in connection with the consideration of Bill C‑13, An Act to amend the Official Languages Act, to enact the Use of French in Federally Regulated Private Businesses Act and to make related amendments to other Acts, we extend the consideration time for four more meetings. In addition, I move that consideration of clause 54 of Bill C‑13 be postponed to the end of clause-by-clause consideration and be subject to debate before the end of the closure of this clause.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal René Arseneault
Are there any questions about this?
Ms. Ashton, you have the floor.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
First, I would like to say that I support the idea of adding time for consideration. I believe it is necessary.
I am very concerned about what happened before the meeting started. Apparently, I had the necessary equipment and my Internet was working. However, for a reason I do not understand, I was told that we could not continue, which I consider to be completely unacceptable.
I am also concerned about the fact that we wasted time in earlier meetings. First, it was attributed to technical difficulties, and I do believe it was genuine technical difficulties. Second, I believe we wasted time at the initial meetings because of the systematic obstruction on the part of several Liberal members who had their own objectives. I have also expressed concerns about the fact that several government members seemed to be opposed to this bill, even though it was introduced by the government.
That said, I think we have to add time for consideration, but I believe that adding four additional meetings would take us much too far. We have been proposing since November that we finish the study as soon as possible by working efficiently. What concerns me is that adding four meetings would bring us to the end of March. We would then have a two-week break, and we would come back for the rest of April. As we know, there would not be a lot of time left to pass this bill as soon as possible.
We therefore believe that four additional meetings is far too much. We agree on adding two. However, I would specify that it will have to be two full meetings, with no technical difficulties interfering with meeting time.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
Joël Godin Conservative Portneuf—Jacques-Cartier, QC
Mr. Chair, I want to thank my colleague Ms. Ashton for her comments. I very much sympathize with her about the technical difficulties she experienced. I know she was not responsible. Her equipment and her Internet connection were as directed.
However, I would like to clarify one point. The eighth meeting will be held on Friday morning. Another one-hour meeting was already scheduled. We have to add to that the hour and a half that we have lost here. So we are talking about a second meeting, plus a quarter of an hour.
Ms. Ashton is asking for two additional meetings, but do those two meetings include all of that?
That's what I would like to know, Mr. Chair.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Niki Ashton NDP Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB
Yes, the Friday meeting was already scheduled. Since the goal is to add time for consideration, we are proposing that two full meetings be held during the week when we come back, the week of March 20, on the Tuesday and Friday.
