Evidence of meeting #1 for Special Committee on Cooperatives 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.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Clerk of the Committee  Mr. Paul Cardegna

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Paul Cardegna

Good afternoon, honourable members of the committee. I see there is a quorum.

So we can now move to the election of the chair.

Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2) and the order adopted by the House on May 30, the chair must be a member of the government party.

I am now ready to receive motions for the election of the chair.

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

Brad Butt Conservative Mississauga—Streetsville, ON

I will nominate Mr. Richards.

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

Are there any further motions?

3:35 p.m.

Liberal

Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON

Mr. Chair, I know it's not necessary, but I'd like to second the nomination nonetheless.

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

That has been noted. Thank you.

Are there any other motions for the election of the chair?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

Agreed and so ordered. Mr. Richards is now elected chair of the committee.

3:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Hear, hear!

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Richards, before you take the chair, I will ask if it is the will of the committee to proceed to the election of the vice-chairs.

Pursuant to the Standing Orders, I preside over the election of the vice-chairs. Is it the pleasure of the committee to proceed with the election of the vice-chairs?

3:35 p.m.

Some hon. members

Agreed.

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

Under the order adopted by the House and Standing Order 106(2), the first vice-chair must be a member of the official opposition.

I am now ready to take nominations for the position of the first vice-chair.

3:35 p.m.

NDP

Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON

I'd like to nominate Madame LeBlanc.

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

Are there any other nominations for the position of first vice-chair?

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I now declare Ms. LeBlanc elected first vice-chair of the committee.

Pursuant to the order made on May 30 to create the committee, the second vice-chair shall be a member of the other opposition party.

I am now ready to receive motions for the election of the second vice-chair.

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

Jacques Gourde Conservative Lotbinière—Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, QC

We nominate Mauril Bélanger.

3:35 p.m.

The Clerk

Mr. Gourde nominates Mr. Bélanger.

Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

I declare Mr. Bélanger duly elected.

I will now invite Mr. Richards to take the chair.

3:35 p.m.

Conservative

The Chair Conservative Blake Richards

Thank you all for your confidence, and welcome to the first meeting of the Special Committee on Cooperatives. Obviously, cooperatives play a pretty key role in our economy—about 18 million Canadians are members—so this is going to be an interesting study and one that I think will be very productive.

I will first thank Mr. Bélanger for the motion he brought forward to the House that began the creation of this committee, and to all parties for your support of the motion in the House. I believe it was unanimously supported. Obviously, that distinguishes how important this study will be, so thank you all very much.

I would like to make a suggestion that we look at some routine motions. I would make the suggestion that we move in camera to do that. It's obviously standard practice.

I'm going to suspend the meeting for just a couple of minutes to ask that the room be cleared of visitors, and we'll move into adopting some routine motions for the committee.

[Proceedings continue in camera]