Evidence of meeting #69 for Public Accounts in the 39th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was meeting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Judy Sgro Liberal York West, ON
Can you say exactly what we're voting on? Are we voting on the clusters, or--
Conservative
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I'm sorry, but asking for clarification is not obstructing.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Order, please, order.
The amendment was to have the two clusters and I went over the two clusters, so I hope everybody understands what the two clusters are all about. Those people in favour of the amendment, would they--
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Okay, a recorded vote.
(Amendment negatived: nays 7; yeas 4) See Minutes of Proceedings
Conservative
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
Regarding the motion, does it actually say how long this meeting is going to be? Can we just clarify that?
Conservative
Mike Lake Conservative Edmonton—Mill Woods—Beaumont, AB
It's going to be a two-hour meeting, so we're going to have six key witnesses at a critical--
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
If we had agreement, we could extend it, but it's usually two hours for our scheduled meetings.
We're on the main motion, and I don't have any people on the speaking list on the main motion, so let's have the vote regarding people who are in favour of the main motion as amended.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Yes, including the amendment.
(Motion as amended agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
I would like to move on to a couple of motions that I think are housecleaning. The Auditor General has certain items every year that she asks us not to detail in the public accounts for privacy reasons. Mr. Williams is quite familiar with those items, I think, and this committee generally goes along with that recommendation and approves it.
Mr. Williams.
Conservative
John Williams Conservative Edmonton—St. Albert, AB
I'm in favour of approving the motion, Mr. Chairman, to give them the extension for one more year. It just seems rather strange, however, that we are approving the payment of heating fuel rebates, not because gasoline is expensive today, but because heating fuel was expensive in 2000. In the winter of 2000 and 2001, the government introduced a program to help people with their heating fuel rebates, and the political motivations of that one were certainly questionable at best.
The Auditor General, who happens to be here, pointed out in the report on that program that it cost $1.4 billion, of which $1 billion went to people who didn't qualify, while 90,000 Canadians who should have received some money from the program didn't see a dime. Here we are, and we're still paying millions of dollars every year for heating bills from six years ago. This is asinine, really. I support the context of maintaining the privacy, but I have to point out how asinine the program was and continues to be, and how expensive it is for the Canadian taxpayer.
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Okay. Thank you for that.
All those people in agreement with the motion as presented? Could I see some support on the matter, please?
Conservative
The Vice-Chair Conservative Brian Fitzpatrick
Thank you.
Mr. Stilborn, at our request, was doing some work for our committee to try to organize things and get some chronology and some order to what we've been doing, and basically the gist of the motion here is to give him....
Yes, go ahead.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
A point of order.
Would you consider a motion to begin the hearing? Would you accept such a motion as being in order? I think the reason we had to move it up is we've dealt with all of that, and now we're all in a position to engage in the work, and the people were brought in. If there are matters left over, we can do those things at the end. I'm asking if you would entertain, and if you will, I would make such a motion.
Bloc
Jean-Yves Laforest Bloc Saint-Maurice—Champlain, QC
You need unanimous consent, Mr. Chairman, but you will not get it.