I'll first of all call this meeting to order.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all so much for being here today.
Before I commence, I would like to mention that Madame Normandin is going to be replacing Monsieur Therrien today. Christine, it's great to see you, a former PROC committee member, again. We also have Kirsty Duncan, who is going to be replacing Mark Gerretsen today, as he was feeling under the weather. Thank you both so much for being here today.
Welcome to the first meeting of the Subcommittee on Private Members' Business.
Pursuant to Standing Order 91.1(1), we are meeting to consider the items placed in the order of precedence on February 27, 2020, to determine whether they should be considered non-votable.
I would like to start the meeting by providing you with some information following the motion that was adopted in the House on Wednesday, September 23, 2020.
The subcommittee is sitting in a hybrid format, meaning that members can participate either in person or by video conference. All members, regardless of their method of participation, will be counted for the purpose of quorum. The subcommittee's power to sit is, however, limited by the priority use of House resources, which is determined by the whips. All questions must be decided by a recorded vote unless the committee disposes of them with unanimous consent or on division.
Today’s proceedings will be made available via the House of Commons website.
To ensure an orderly meeting, I would like to outline a few rules.
For those participating virtually, members may speak in the official language of their choice. Interpretation services are available for this meeting. You have the choice, at the bottom of your screen, of either “floor” or “English” or “French”.
Before speaking, click on the microphone icon to activate your own mike. When you are done speaking, please put your mike on mute to minimize any interference. As a reminder, all comments by members should be addressed through the chair.
Should members need to request the floor outside of their designated time for questions, they should activate their mike and state that they have a point of order. If a member wishes to intervene on a point of order that has been raised by another member, they should use the “raise hand” function. This will signal to the chair your interest in speaking and create a speakers list. In order to do so, you should click on “Participants” at the bottom of the screen. When the list pops up, you will see next to your name that you can click “raise hand”.
When speaking, please speak slowly and clearly. Unless there are exceptional circumstances, the use of headsets with a boom microphone is mandatory for everyone participating remotely.
Again, I want to thank our interpreters, who do such a tremendous job at all the committees on which we sit.
Should any technical challenges arise, please advise the chair. Please note that we may need to suspend for a few minutes in that case, as we need to ensure all members are able to participate fully.
For those participating in person, moi et Christine, proceed as you would normally in any in-person meeting. Keep in mind the Board of Internal Economy guidelines concerning the wearing of masks and all the health protocols. Should you wish to get my attention, please signal me with a hand gesture or, at an appropriate time, just call out my name. Should you wish to raise a point of order, wait for an appropriate time and indicate to me clearly that you wish to raise a point of order.
With regard to the speakers list, the committee clerk and I will do our best to maintain a consolidated order of speaking for all members, whether they are participating virtually or in person.
We are now ready to start consideration of the 30 items placed on the order of precedence. Generally, the analyst takes the floor to present the votability criteria. Then the analyst would usually give a succinct summary of the first item, after which members can ask questions. If there are no questions, the chair puts the question. The same process is followed for each item on the order of precedence.
Since 2016, at times the subcommittee has accepted all items at once by way of unanimous consent. This worked well when all items remained votable, but it could have created some confusion when members had a concern about some of the items.
I have to say that I was the chair back in early 2016, and this was probably the fastest committee meeting to ever go through, actually. It was pretty quick.
If there's debate or discussion, we certainly want to make sure that it is allowed, but if we can work through these fairly quickly, we'll be able to do so by way of UC as well. I am in the hands of the subcommittee as to how to proceed. If all members agree to adopt all items at once, we can do it this way. However, if members wish to debate some items, it may be better to take the time needed to discuss and make decisions on each item.
At this time, I want to ask how the committee prefers to move forward with the first 30 items.
