Public Safety Committee on April 8th, 2024

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Jean-François Pagé]

It will read: “(2) In making regulations under subsection (1), the Governor in Council may seek to ensure consistency with existing regulatory regimes, such as those established by provincial regulatory agencies.”

That's it.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

May I suggest, Mr. Chair, that we have two votes on this? I support the second half. I don't support “may”. I believe it should read “should”.

I'm torn because I'm supporting one half of the subamendment and not supporting the other.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

The first thing I can do, I'm told, is ask if there is unanimous consent to separate them out. If there's not UC, then we'll vote on the whole subamendment.

We didn't get UC, Mr. Julian, so we will call for a vote on what we just read out for the subamendment.

(Subamendment agreed to)

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Next is G-19.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Chair, this is just to address a discrepancy between the French and English versions of the legislation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Thank you.

There's no further discussion. Shall G-19 carry?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Next is G-20.

Go ahead, Ms. O'Connell.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

This provides that amendment that we dealt with in G-10 and G-12 It's to ensure the availability of the due diligence defence for designated operators.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

There's no further discussion. Shall G-20 carry?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Next is NDP-37.

Go ahead, Mr. Julian.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

We're actually coming to a close, Mr. Chair. You've been very efficient, and so has the committee.

I move NDP-37. It is the same as NDP-9. This would establish a special advocate for issues such as security orders subject to judicial review.

Mr. Chair, I did write to the minister a number of weeks ago—I'm disappointed to have not received a reply—calling on the minister to ensure royal recommendation for this particular amendment.

I am sure he has sent you a letter saying he agrees with the royal recommendation. If he hasn't, you would be compelled to rule this amendment out of order, which would be a shame.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Julian.

The amendment attempts to give the power to a judge to appoint a person from a list established by the minister to act as a special advocate in the proceeding, creating a new and distinct spending to be drawn from the treasury.

As House of Commons Procedure and Practice, third edition, states on page 772:

Since an amendment may not infringe upon the financial initiative of the Crown, it is inadmissible if it imposes a charge on the public treasury, or if it extends the objects or purposes or relaxes the conditions and qualifications specified in the royal recommendation.

In the opinion of the chair and for the above-mentioned reason, the amendment proposes to appoint a special advocate, which imposes a charge on the public treasury; therefore, I rule the amendment inadmissible.

We are on NDP-38.

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This endeavours to do what we've already done in accepting NDP-7. What this does is amend line 13 on page 84 with the same reporting requirements.

Earlier in this meeting we made some changes to NDP-7 as adopted. I will move NDP-38 with the hope that those changes would be forthcoming as subamendments so that it would then be consistent with what we adopted earlier at the beginning of the legislation. It would allow for consistency by putting in place the same type of amendment and reporting mechanism in the latter part of the bill.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Mr. Julian, BQ-26 and CPC-52 cannot be moved, as they are identical.

Ms. O'Connell, go ahead, please.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Chair.

We recognize that we've accepted changes throughout the course of this study. I guess it's a bit awkward in the sense that we prefer G-20.1 in addressing this issue, but because we're dealing with NDP-38 first, if there is support for NDP-38, we would have some amendments to be consistent, or we would just support G-20.1.

Maybe I'll put the subamendments on the floor. For the sake of discussion, in paragraphs (e) and (f), similar to what we did earlier, I would move to replace “the number” in (e) and (f) with “prescription of compliance”. This is going back to our earlier conversation that just having “the number” could be problematic, but we would rather—

[An hon. member]

It's the same line as we had before.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Yes.

It was to replace “the number” in (e) and (f) with “prescription of compliance”....

I have “prescription”, but I think “description” is fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

This a subamendment, then.

I'm going to get Ms. O'Connell to read it so that everybody is clear on what we're doing.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

In NDP-38, I would replace the words “the number” in paragraphs (e) and (f) with “prescription of compliance” in both of them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Is there any further discussion?

We'll vote on the subamendment.

(Subamendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we go back to the main amendment and the motion.

Shall NDP-38 carry as amended?

(Amendment as amended agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Now we're on G-20.1.

[Jennifer O'Connell, Liberal, Pickering—Uxbridge, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

This is creating a non-exhaustive list of contents that need to be included in the minister's annual report. We've had different discussions about this. I think it's just to provide clarity so that we didn't need to get into a report on number of events or on this or on that. This will provide some clarity on what should be covered in the annual report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Shall G-20.1 carry?

(Amendment agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

(Clause 13 as amended agreed to on division)

(Clause 14 agreed to)

[Peter Julian, NDP, New Westminster—Burnaby, BC]

I have a point of order. If there is a will around this table, Mr. Chair, you could group all of the clauses that have not been amended and see if they are agreed to.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Thank you, Mr. Julian.

(Clauses 15 to 19 inclusive agreed to on division)

(Schedule agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Shall the title carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Shall the bill as amended carry?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Heath MacDonald]

Shall the chair report the bill to the House as amended?