Public Safety Committee on June 15th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

So you would have to have someone from the Liberal Party here?

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

Yes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Mr. Chairman, the difficulty with it is that you could have one party who could pull quorum on you, right?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Yes.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Why don't we just say “including one member of the opposition and one member of the government”?

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

Do we want three or four for quorum? This says three. Four would be nice.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

It's up to you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Mr. Scarpaleggia.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Again, this is just to hear evidence. No voting takes place in these meetings.

Now, it does say that the chair be authorized--meaning you, chair, and not a vice-chair--so it would require your presence, would it not?

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Or whoever is in the chair.

[Francis Scarpaleggia, Liberal, Lac-Saint-Louis, QC]

Ah, okay.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I think the problem here, Mr. Scarpaleggia, and all of you, is that as parties have other people in other committees.... I mean, I don't know; are any of you in just one committee? Most of our members are in two committees. I imagine you may be in more than one committee.

Sometimes, if you only have one member and he isn't here yet, we can hold up forever. I think that's what Ms. Hoeppner's....

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

We could still go with four. I think four is still a good number for quorum.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

Well, you moved it, so.... This is just something to start off with, so if you're making a motion here that four members must be present--

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

And we could say “including one member of the opposition”. We want to make sure there's a member of the opposition so that the four members aren't just the government. As long as there's one member of the opposition, that's quorum.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

And one member of the government, to meet Mr. Rathgeber's...?

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

Yes, and one member of government.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

Does the chair count towards the quorum?

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

Yes.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

I mean, that's three others, so if we go with four....

It would be pretty pathetic to bring in witnesses and have all these chairs set up, and only the chairperson is here and two other people; that's the three. So if we go with four, and representation from government and from opposition--

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

We should have four.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

So it's four including the chair.

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

Well, four would be quorum.

[Don Davies, NDP, Vancouver Kingsway, BC]

That sounds good.

[The Chair, Conservative, Kevin Sorenson]

All in favour of the motion, then, as Ms. Hoeppner has suggested it?

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])