Evidence of meeting #1 for Public Safety and National Security in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Kevin Sorenson
So you would have to have someone from the Liberal Party here?
5:45 p.m.
NDP
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?
5:45 p.m.
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Why don't we just say “including one member of the opposition and one member of the government”?
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
Do we want three or four for quorum? This says three. Four would be nice.
June 15th, 2011 / 5:45 p.m.
Liberal
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?
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
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....
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
Candice Bergen Conservative Portage—Lisgar, MB
We could still go with four. I think four is still a good number for quorum.
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
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--
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
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.
5:45 p.m.
NDP
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
5:45 p.m.
Conservative
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--
5:50 p.m.
Conservative
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])