Evidence of meeting #1 for Public Safety and National Security in the 39th Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was clerk.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
Except for amendments to bills, 48 hours' notice be given before any substantive motion be considered by the committee.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
It's that a period of notice be calculated from the time the motion has been distributed by the clerk. It used to be from the time it was filed.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I haven't read this, but I'll read it out loud:
That 48 hours' notice be required for any substantive motion to be considered by the Committee, unless the substantive motion relates directly to the business under consideration; and that the notice of motion be filed with the Clerk of the Committee and distributed to members in both official languages.
That's what we have been doing, Ms. Barnes.
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
No, there's a difference here. It used to be that people would drop motions into the clerk's office, and it was from when the motion got dropped that the time period ran. This is saying that it's now from the clerk's distribution of the motion. That's the thing I wanted to clarify. It's when the notice goes out from the office, because it depends on how they do it.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
We have it that way because when the members of the committee get it, that would have to be--
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
Let's make it a practical thing. So if it goes out on Friday at four o'clock , are we dealing with it on Monday?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
No, 48 hours is usually calculated on working days, business days. It wouldn't be Saturday and Sunday.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Mr. Chair, I have a humble suggestion. If it has not really interfered with the work of the committee, if in the past it's always been that the notice is deemed to have been given the moment the motion is dropped with the clerk, why change it?
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Absolutely, the committee in its wisdom can say, all right, we haven't been able to prepare, and we're going to postpone the discussion another 24 hours.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
You do need to have time for translation. Just because it's dropped at the clerk's office on Friday.... You should have it in the hands of the members of the committee. It's protection for you and for everybody.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I am given to understand that quite often the motions are actually in both languages when they're dropped by the members.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
But not always, and if you don't have some protection you could have something dropped off.... I think Ms. Barnes' question on how this translates practically is a good one, because if you drop something off on Friday and then all of a sudden Monday we have to deal with it, boy, I'll tell you, members of the committee would be up.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
So be it. It has been thus for a long time and it has not presented a problem. Why are we changing it? Give me some rationale as to why this change is being sought.
NDP
Penny Priddy NDP Surrey North, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My challenge with this is that there then is no real timeframe around the motion, because it is 48 hours after the clerk distributes it. The clerk could distribute it the next day, four days later, a week later. I'm sure it wouldn't go that long, but potentially there's nothing to keep that from happening. So when you say 48 hours from filing, which is a fairly standard committee process I've seen, then there is some guarantee around time and expectation. If people aren't ready to deal with it, then so be it; they can put it off until the next meeting. I am concerned that there will then be no timeframe in which the clerk must do it, so it's 48 hours after the clerk distributes it. Maybe that's a week after I put it in, so I worry about the looseness of that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Garry Breitkreuz
I still think the practice of this committee has been 48 hours, and that was just the sitting days of Parliament. If you have it otherwise, it's not included in here, but that's been our usual practice--the sitting days of Parliament. Hasn't it?
Liberal
Sue Barnes Liberal London West, ON
I think we were interpreting the rule as “two sleeps”, so the Friday-Monday stuff was legitimate.
