Public Accounts Committee on March 26th, 2007

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Once we deal with the first one, we'll deal with the second one.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

But you can't. The second one is negated.

[David Sweet, Conservative, Ancaster—Dundas—Flamborough—Westdale, ON]

That's why I'm asking.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Order.

Okay, obviously—

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I have a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'm going to put the question. It's a recorded vote.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

Mr. Chair, I have a point of order.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'm going to turn it over to the clerk to conduct the vote.

Order.

Clerk, you have the floor.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I have a point of order.

[Brian Fitzpatrick, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Mr. Chair, there's a point of order here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

The clerk has the floor.

(Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

The second part of the motion—and hopefully this will be very quick—reads:

That the Clerk be authorized to make such editorial and typographical changes including the approved ones as necessary, without changing the substance of the Report.

--and--

That the Chair be authorized to table the Report in the House.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

I'd like to speak to that, Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Okay, go ahead, speak to it.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

This is clearly an attempt to undermine the responsibility of ministers. During the Liberal sponsorship scandal, we saw your government attempt to avoid responsibility by blaming public servants for the corrupt behaviour of political leaders in the Liberal Party. Perhaps this is an attempt to protect future Liberal governments, many years down the road, from political responsibility that would result from their behaviour at that time.

[Judy Sgro, Liberal, York West, ON]

Look after your own. Don't worry about ours.

[Pierre Poilievre, Conservative, Nepean—Carleton, ON]

This speaks to the institutional corruption of the Liberal Party and demonstrates that the Liberal Party still has not learned that politicians ought to be accountable for their behaviour. We on this side are prepared to take responsibility for our behaviour. We believe in ministerial responsibility, and we're not going to undermine that principle by voting in favour of a report written by a consultant and rammed through this committee.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

Thank you.

Mr. Fitzpatrick, this deals with the typographical changes. Is this on the motion?

[Brian Fitzpatrick, Conservative, Prince Albert, SK]

Are we not dealing with Mr. Sweet's motion?

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

No, we're not talking about that yet.

I'm going to ask the clerk, on the typographical change, which is all we're talking about—

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Georges Etoka]

You need a mover.

[Borys Wrzesnewskyj, Liberal, Etobicoke Centre, ON]

I so move.

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

I'll ask the clerk to call the vote on that particular question.

You don't need a recorded vote.

(Motion agreed to)

[The Chair, Liberal, Shawn Murphy]

The next item, colleagues, is the Sweet motion. Did you want to deal with that today, or did you want to defer that until the next day?

[Raymond Simard, Liberal, Saint Boniface, MB]

There's another one.