Public Safety Committee on Feb. 20th, 2020

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

The motion reads:

That the Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be established and be composed of five (5) members; the Chair, one Member from each Party; and that the subcommittee work in the spirit of collaboration.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Are you happy with that?

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

It's one from each party.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Plus the chair.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Yes. Good.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Are you fine with that?

(Motion agreed to)

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

I will move the next one.

Regarding reduced quorum, the motion is as follows:

That the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four members are present, including one member of the opposition and one member of the government, but when travelling outside the parliamentary precinct, that the meeting begin after 15 minutes, regardless of members present.

[Marc Dalton, Conservative, Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge, BC]

We're not having the same written motion given to us as what has been presented here. I don't know if the sheets have been distributed or not, but otherwise it's up for debate.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Yes. It is a bit confusing.

Do we have sheets?

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

It's the list from the previous Parliament, and here are the changes.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Yes.

Yes, it's from the previous Parliament.

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

It's a new one. Is it from the former Parliament? There are some changes.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

To minimize confusion, Angelo, do you want to resubmit that?

[Angelo Iacono, Liberal, Alfred-Pellan, QC]

Yes. The motion is as follows:

That the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive evidence and to have that evidence printed when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four members are present, including one member of the opposition and one member of the government, but when travelling outside the parliamentary precinct, that the meeting begin after 15 minutes, regardless of members present.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Alistair.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Chair, I have a slight amendment to this part.

Given the fact that in this Parliament when we're referring to the opposition, we have three recognized parties now. If we're only going to have this particular wording mention one member of the opposition, which member could it be?

I have a slight amendment that was passed at the Standing Committee on Agriculture. It refers to two members of the government and two members of the opposition. I can read that into the record, if you wish.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

For procedural purposes, you're moving an amendment to the motion, so we will debate the amendment before we debate the main motion.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I can read the amendment into the record.

The new wording of the reduced quorum section would read as follows: “That the chair be authorized to hold meetings to receive and publish evidence when a quorum is not present, provided that at least four members are present, including two members from the opposition and two members from the government, and that in the case of previously scheduled meetings taking place outside of the parliamentary precinct, the committee members in attendance be required to wait for 15 minutes following the designated start of the meeting before they may proceed to hear witnesses and receive evidence regardless of whether the opposition or government members are present.”

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

First of all, does everybody understand what Alistair just read?

Is there debate on it?

Pam.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

It's more than just adding the “two” and “two”. You've changed some wording around the means of.... I didn't get it all.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

I apologize. I only have the copy from the agriculture committee. The spirit is the same. I just want to ensure that the motion refers to the fact that, for this reduced quorum, we have two members from the opposition and two members from the government, given the changing nature of the minority Parliament we're in.

[Pam Damoff, Liberal, Oakville North—Burlington, ON]

The wording for when travelling changed quite a bit. Is it still the same, that the meeting starts after 15 minutes?

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

We can keep the wording the same as what this committee has. I just want to ensure that two members of the opposition and two members of the government are specifically referred to. That's the crux of the matter.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

For the purposes of clarification, we're not doing anything with respect to meetings outside the precinct. All that you're changing is the wording with respect to who has to be present for the purposes of starting a meeting within the precinct.