Physician-Assisted Dying Committee on Jan. 18th, 2016

[The Joint Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Shaila Anwar]

Honourable Senators and members of Parliament, I see a quorum.

[Inaudible—Editor] It's my duty to preside over the election of a joint chair. Pursuant to the motion adopted by the Senate on December 11, 2015, the joint chair from the Senate shall be from the official opposition party.

I am ready to receive a motion for the election of the Senate joint chair.

Mr. Oliphant.

[The Joint Clerk, Ms. Shaila Anwar]

Are there any other nominations?

Mr. Oliphant moves that Honourable Senator Ogilvie be elected joint chair of the committee.

Is it your pleasure, members of the committee, to adopt this motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and I invite Senator Ogilvie to take the chair.

I will give the floor to my colleague from the House of Commons.

[Rob Oliphant, Liberal, Don Valley West, ON]

Madam Chair pro tem, I would like to place a nomination in the name of Senator Kelvin Ogilvie as co-chair from the Senate.

[The Joint Clerk of the Committee, Ms. Cynara Corbin]

Honourable members of the committee, I must inform you that the joint clerk of the committee may only receive motions for the election of the joint chair. The joint clerk may not receive any other motions. She cannot entertain points of order, nor participate in debates.

We can now proceed to the election of the joint chair from the House of Commons.

Pursuant to the order of reference adopted by the House of Commons on December 11, 2015, the joint chair must be a member of the government party.

I am ready to receive motions to that effect.

Senator Ogilvie.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie (Senator, Nova Scotia (Annapolis Valley—Hants), C)]

Madam Chair pro tem, it is my pleasure to nominate Mr. Rob Oliphant as the co-chair.

[The Joint Clerk, Ms. Cynara Corbin]

It has been moved by Senator Ogilvie that Mr. Rob Oliphant be elected joint chair of the committee.

Are there any further motions?

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

(Motion agreed to)

I declare the motion carried and Mr. Oliphant duly elected joint chair of the committee.

I invite Mr. Oliphant to take the chair.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant (Don Valley West, Lib.)), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

The first order of business for me and my colleague from the Senate is to say welcome to this special joint parliamentary committee to consider the issue of physician-assisted dying. Welcome especially to new members of Parliament who may be sitting on a committee for the first time. We will endeavour to make sure that the committee runs smoothly and efficiently and with good grace. Thank you for agreeing to sit on the committee. I think our work will be excellent.

There are a number of items of business that we need to attend to in this organizing meeting.

Have the clerks distributed to the committee the routine motions?

[The Joint Clerk, Ms. Cynara Corbin]

No, not yet. It's up to committee whether you want to do that.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I think it would be helpful, then, if the clerks were to distribute the routine motions to the committee members so that they have them in their hands.

Just before we do that, this committee can have two vice-chairs. I think we are now able to receive motions for vice-chairs for the committee.

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

I would like to nominate Michael Cooper to be the Conservative vice-chair.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

There is a nomination on the floor for Mr. Cooper to be the vice-chair from the Conservative Party.

Are there further motions?

(Motion agreed to)

Welcome, Michael, as vice-chair.

I would entertain a motion to have another vice-chair. If Murray Rankin is willing to stand as vice-chair, and if one of the members from the government side would be willing to do that....

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

I would like to nominate our colleague Murray Rankin.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Are there other nominations?

(Motion agreed to)

Welcome as vice-chair, Mr. Rankin.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Thank you.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

Colleagues, I too would like to join my co-chair in welcoming you to this committee, especially my colleagues from the Senate, and of course the new colleagues I will get to know from the House of Commons.

We will now move into the routine motions section of our agenda. First we will need a motion to the effect that the committee will retain, as needed and at the discretion of the joint chairs, the services of one or more analysts from the Library of Parliament to assist in its work.

Is there a mover?

[An hon. member]

I so move.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

I have the motion on the floor. If it is clearly understood, are you in agreement with the motion?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Joint Chair, Hon. Kelvin Kenneth Ogilvie]

(Motion agreed to)

Thank you very much.

Mr. Co-Chair, I would like to suggest that we invite the analysts to the table and introduce them to the committee. Julia Nicol is the lead analyst for this committee. Marlisa Tiedemann and Sonya Norris are also analysts. I would invite them to join us at the table.

We would like to welcome you and to express how pleased we are that you are going to be working with us in this important endeavour.

Thank you.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

Thank you for the work you have already done and the work you will do.

The second motion that is required is to begin to look at the time for opening remarks and for witnesses, and for the questioning of witnesses.

Do I have a motion for that?

Brenda Shanahan.

[Brenda Shanahan, Liberal, Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I move that witnesses to appear before the committee be given 10 minutes to make their opening remarks, and that during the questioning of witnesses the time allocated to each questioner be five minutes. There will be two rounds. A Liberal member of Parliament will begin the first round and will have five minutes at his or her disposal to ask questions. Afterwards a House of Commons Conservative will have five minutes, followed by a New Democratic member who will have five minutes; then a Conservative senator will have five minutes, as will a Liberal senator after that. During the second round, five minutes will be given to a Liberal member of Parliament, then to a Conservative member, then to a Conservative senator, a Liberal senator, and finally a Liberal member of Parliament.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

I know that was fairly quick for people, and now we're going to welcome discussion about it. The motion was that witnesses would be given 10 minutes to make opening remarks, and then there would be two rounds, whenever possible, of questioning. The first round would commence with members of Parliament from the House of Commons. There would be five minutes for the Liberal side, five minutes for a Conservative, and five minutes for a New Democrat, followed by two senators, first a Conservative senator and then a Liberal senator. That would be round one of 25 minutes.

In the second round there would be a House of Commons Liberal followed by a House of Commons Conservative followed by a senator from the Conservative Party, and then a Liberal senator and a House of Commons Liberal. That would be the second round of 25 minutes, so there would be two 25-minute rounds following a ten-minute presentation by a witness.

Is there discussion?

Mr. Rankin.

[Murray Rankin, NDP, Victoria, BC]

Mr. Chair, I would like to move to amend that allocation of time. Perhaps not surprisingly, I think, if I'm understanding it correctly, in our judgment not enough time is being provided to elected members. In particular I would like to propose that, as you said, the Liberal House of Commons representative go first for five minutes, and then a Conservative House member of Parliament for five minutes, an NDP member for five, and then a Senate Conservative and a Senate Liberal for five each. I think that's what you have indicated.

After that, for the second round, I propose that there be a House of Commons Liberal for five minutes, a House of Commons Conservative for five minutes, an NDP member for five minutes, and a House of Commons Liberal for five minutes.

I think the benefit of that arrangement is that it provides the last word to the MP for the governing party, which I think is appropriate, and it also provides a total of 10 minutes for the NDP. Otherwise.... This is a very rare beast, isn't it? It's a special standing committee of the House and the Senate, and with great respect to the Senate, I think it's more appropriate to provide a longer period of time to elected representatives.

[The Joint Chair (Mr. Robert Oliphant), Liberal, Rob Oliphant]

We have a proposal, then, to amend the original motion as it was presented, so let's take some discussion on the amendment.

Mr. Warawa.

[Mark Warawa, Conservative, Langley—Aldergrove, BC]

Thank you, Chair.

I appreciate what Mr. Rankin has shared and his amending motion, but the original motion as presented by the government provides the traditional balance. The government is the government, and the proposal giving the NDP an opportunity for one time of questioning in the first round, after which they would have to wait for the second round, has been traditional for their party, and it represents the number of seats in the House. I think it is fair, and therefore I will be voting against the amendment. I will support the original motion.