Public Safety Committee on June 15th, 2011

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We have a motion on the floor right now, which we probably should deal with first.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

The debate and the discussion are around the motion.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

All right.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

What I'm still not seeing coming out of this process is the public safety committee being consulted on the selection criteria. How does that emerge from that meeting?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

Then why don't we do one hour of the witnesses and one hour of discussion?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

And then people could make a motion or not, maybe. I still like the idea.

What is the first round? What does that take you to, Mr. Chairman, in terms of the end of...?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

If we do it the way we've adopted here, they will have 10 minutes to do their presentation. Then you'll have seven, seven, seven, and seven. So seven times four is 28.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

So that's 38.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

That's half an hour.

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

We might have time for another five-minute and five-minute....

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Sometimes, too, these guys go for 10 minutes each. And if there are two departments, if there are two or three people who want to speak, that can take half an hour, and then you get....

Go ahead.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I like the idea of one hour and one hour. Or you could split it up by saying....

[Brent Rathgeber, Conservative, Edmonton—St. Albert, AB]

I have a point of order. The bells are ringing. I ask that you call the question, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All right. Let's call the question.

I will try to work this thing out. I understand what you're saying. You want to have lots of time to.... We may even be able to keep these guys a little extra long.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Yes. There is no calling the question. That is not a motion that's in order. But I would suggest that you get through the first round of questions of the seven, seven, seven--that's half an hour--and then go to discussion.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Okay. Can we call the question? The bells are blinking, and that means I have to ask for permission to call the question. Are we all in favour of the question?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All in favour of the motion on the floor that Ms. Hoeppner brought forward?

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

I'm sorry. I still don't understand exactly what the motion is.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

It's exactly as she read it, but I know what you're saying.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

It's not capable of.... Do we have copies of it yet?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Could you read the motion, Andrew?

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

The motion is that the committee study the selection criteria for the new commissioner of the RCMP, found in annex A of the letter from the Minister of Public Safety to the chair, and that the criteria be studied for one meeting.

That's the motion. Now we have gone beyond that in our discussion as to what we're doing on Tuesday. But that is the motion we are in the middle of voting on right now.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

The difficulty I have with that is.... I can agree with the motion, but unless we flesh out how that's going to work on the Tuesday, it's....

[Candice Bergen, Conservative, Portage—Lisgar, MB]

I think we're in agreement.