Public Accounts Committee on May 31st, 2018

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right.

Mr. McCauley you still have a few moments, if you want to ask some more questions.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

We have a few minutes, so I'll let you speak out.

We've read the report about the first nations, Phoenix, the bridge, all this lack of oversight, etc. What do you think should be our next steps?

I'm thinking of the $60-billion to $100-billion monster with the shipbuilding where we can't get information; Mr. Angus can't get answers.

What do you think our next steps should be?

[Michael Ferguson]

In the course of our audit, again, we made a number of recommendations that would be aimed at fixing process. That's one thing.

In the message, that's where we identified that Phoenix should not have happened. There should not have been any way for Phoenix to happen, given all the different controls that exist within government, but somehow it did happen.

Therefore, there needs to be some sort of an examination of the cultural reasons within government that allowed it to happen.

[Kelly McCauley, Conservative, Edmonton West, AB]

I appreciate your time.

I'm going to turn the floor over to Mr. Nuttall.

Thanks again.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Nuttall.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to move the motion that was agreed on between, I believe all the parties.

I move:

That we invite the Clerk of the Privy Council to address the message of the Auditor General in the 2018 Spring Reports.

I'll leave that on the floor, Mr. Chair.

I don't think it requires any more statements, certainly from this side. I'm glad that we could all be non-partisan and move forward on getting some more answers.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you.

Ms. Mendès asked for a moment.

[Alexandra Mendes, Liberal, Brossard—Saint-Lambert, QC]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.

While I absolutely support the motion—and I told you I would—I would like to have time to confer with my colleagues and bring it to the next meeting, if at all possible, for the vote. This message goes way beyond the mandate of this current clerk.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Nuttall.

[Alex Nuttall, Conservative, Barrie—Springwater—Oro-Medonte, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'm not sure what we would need to talk about, or you with your colleagues. I assume we either want to get answers or we don't. One of the things that I admire about this committee is that it is non-partisan. If we could push for a vote, that would be—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Angus.

[Charlie Angus, NDP, Timmins—James Bay, ON]

Thank you.

I'm a visitor to your committee. As an outsider, I would point out that an agreement was made to allow questioning to continue on the condition that a decision was made. Mr. Nuttall could have held the floor and stopped the Auditor General from speaking.

Out of respect, I think we should deal with this tonight.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Arya.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to know if there was any notice given before a motion was placed for a decision.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I asked the clerk that question, and the answer was no. There wasn't, because it was coming out of the Auditor General's report. It's not a substantive motion that is against the report, that somebody might have a motion for something that wasn't dealing....

Motions do come out of meetings that we have like this. I was told it was in order.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

My objection to the motion is that we have the Auditor General here. We have the important persons to ask. To cut that short to discuss a motion on this is, I think, a waste of time for the committee when important witnesses are present here.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Thank you, Mr. Arya.

The only problem was that we did have an agreement between...that we would hold off till the last five minutes. So that's—

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

But when you—

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Arya, I have the floor.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

I'm sorry.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We had moved along, and we had gone ahead with, as Mr. Angus said, the questions to our Auditor General, holding off until the last five minutes.

So I think I'm still going to have to call the question. Then we'll just have to take it from there.

Mr. Arya.

[Chandra Arya, Liberal, Nepean, ON]

Mr. Chair, when you talk about agreement, I understand that you did talk to Alexandra Mendès, who is a vice-chair, but I think every single member of the committee is as important as any other member.

[An hon. member]

Call the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

We'll call the question.

All those in favour of Mr. Nuttall's motion?

(Motion agreed to)

We're adjourned.