Science and Research Committee on March 30th, 2023

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Anyhow, that's my two cents.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Thank you, Mr. Lobb.

Is there acceptance of this suggestion by Mr. Lauzon to remove his amendment, or should we proceed with debate?

[Stéphane Lauzon, Liberal, Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, QC]

I already asked for an amendment. It's on the record, and it's a fair amendment. I explained why, and I think that we should just pass the vote.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

We're going to continue on with the debate.

We have MP Blanchette-Joncas.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to propose adding the following subamendment to Ms. Bradford's motion: "in a manner consistent with the fields of jurisdiction of Quebec, the provinces and the federal government".

What I'd like—

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

You might have missed.... The amendment to the motion was from Mr. Lauzon, not Ms. Bradford, but it was Ms. Bradford's study.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Excuse me, Mr. Chair.

I'd like to propose a subamendment to Mr. Lauzon's motion.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Could you make that subamendment again, please?

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Yes, Mr. Chair.

The subamendment is: "in a manner consistent with the fields of jurisdiction of Quebec, the provinces and the federal government".

I simply want the fields of jurisdiction to be complied with. I'm in agreement with studying pay equity, but only if it is a federal government jurisdiction. That's all, Mr. Chair.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Maybe I did mishear. You are referring to Ms. Bradford's motion on that study, and we can't amend something other than the motion that is on the floor that is being amended by Mr. Lauzon, so that is not in order. You can't go back and amend something unrelated to what has the floor. Does that make sense?

All right. Let's vote.

Mr. Clerk, can you call the vote, please?

Ms. Diab, you're on mute.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Can someone hear me?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Yes.

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I can't hear anything in the room. I'm not sure if they're saying anything.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

The question is on Mr. Lauzon's amendment.

It's your vote.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Chair, I'd like something clarified.

We are now voting on the amendment. It's important to make sure that…

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

The floor audio has been muted on the screen.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

We can hear you right now.

However, I believe we have Ms. Diab's vote. Is that correct, Mr. Clerk?

To answer Mr. Blanchette-Joncas' question, yes, we are voting on Mr. Lauzon's amendment to your motion.

Let's just take one minute here to make sure we get this right.

Madam Diab, we're just having a little bit of trouble with your sound. You can hear me, I'm assuming. Could you nod your head? Madam Diab—

[Lena Metlege Diab, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I vote yes.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

You vote yes; we have that on the record. Your vote is yes for the amendment of the motion from your colleague.

I'll let the clerk continue to call the question.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Mr. Chair, can you reread the amendment?

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

We're in the middle of the question. We can't reread the amendment. The amendment was read twice, once when it was introduced by Mr. Lauzon and then confirmed within 10 minutes.

It's your call.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

In that case, I vote against the amendment.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

Okay.

(Amendment agreed to: yeas 9; nays 1 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

All right. Now we have the amended motion of Mr. Blanchette-Joncas from Mr. Lauzon, and we're going to pose the question. Is there any discussion on that amendment now?

Seeing none, we'll call the question.

(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 10; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])

I can now announce a couple of things here. Also, we have other committee business, which we have to—

Go ahead, Mr. Blanchette-Joncas.

[Maxime Blanchette-Joncas, Bloc, Rimouski-Neigette—Témiscouata—Les Basques, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

As we are still discussing the work of the committee, I have an important request to make to the committee.

We welcomed the minister, Mr. Champagne, on February 2, as well as the Chief Science Advisor of Canada, Ms. Nemer. I had asked both of them to provide written responses, because we had run out of time to obtain the information. I had also included specific questions for the minister about certain data. We received Ms. Nemer's response on March 23, and the minister's on March 21.

I'm going to ask the committee to make these replies public so that they can be included in its report. I believe that this information is important, and that it could help us improve the committee's recommendations further to its study on research and scientific publication in French.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Corey Tochor]

We need to suspend for a minute. We are having sound issues with Madam Diab's connection.

We stand suspended.