Evidence of meeting #44 for Public Accounts in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was amendment.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
Those who wanted to leave a couple of minutes ago appreciate the fact that you delayed them another two.
All right. Thank you very much, witnesses—
Liberal
Jean-Claude D'Amours Liberal Madawaska—Restigouche, NB
Mr. Chair, I have a brief comment. To reply to Mr. Saxton, if the members of the government party had at least had the courtesy of having copies made in both official languages, that would have been better.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
Very well. I always speak on behalf of the members but this time, I think that I can speak on behalf of all my colleagues. I thank the witnesses for their patience.
All right. We have—
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
Mr. Dreeshen, one moment, please.
Okay. Mr. Dreeshen, you have the floor.
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Basically my only point was that we do have the opening statement from the Auditor General in our hands. I'm just wondering what we should be doing with it. It does talk about it not being for publication and so on, so what do we do with this?
Liberal
Conservative
Earl Dreeshen Conservative Red Deer, AB
Should we endeavour to keep this private? Should we endeavour to keep this, which was going to be her notes here, confidential?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
Oh, okay. I think that was distributed in anticipation of it being public and all of their comments.... I guess we keep it among ourselves until—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
I don't think they were going to say anything that wasn't intended for the public, but in fairness to everybody, for the documentation that was distributed, if you'd keep it to yourselves for your own consumption and not for widespread use, it would be appreciated.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
That was a good point. Thank you, Mr. Dreeshen.
We now have the motion. I'm going to read it. I'm going to read Mr. Kramp's amendment where--
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
No. Actually what we were doing was trying to coordinate what Mr. Kramp was going to put down for us so that we could do essentially what we've done with Mr. D'Amours. I'm going to read it into the record. I'm going to do it very slowly and in that way you can have an indication of what it is we're discussing.
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
On a point of order, Chair, I found that motion to be so complex that I need it in front of me to see the exact words being used.
Conservative
NDP
David Christopherson NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
That's great, but until I have something in front of me, I don't consider myself to be prepared.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
I think one of the problems we have right now is that it is in one language only. If the committee is prepared to waive the rules about distributing documents in both official languages, I can send some of our staff to get a copy of the English version only. We can then read it into the record and the translation will come through the reading. I can't do that unless the committee decides unanimously to waive this.
Would you like me to ask the committee for that?
Bloc
Meili Faille Bloc Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
You are going to read the motion and we are going to listen to the translation?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Joe Volpe
If you will, I intend to have Mr. Kramp's amendment copied and to read it in English with the amended motion so that the official and correct translation can be given to us by our interpreters.
Otherwise, I'm going to have to read it.
