Evidence of meeting #9 for Status of Women in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was union.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Well, then, you are not accepting the motion, because the motion says “following the government's announcement to make maternal and child health a priority at the G8”, so to appear “following” does not really give a timeline.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Mr. Calandra, I really don't want to proceed with entertaining any other discussion unless I'm sure that Ms. Demers accepts this as a friendly amendment. If she doesn't, we will then discuss the amendment per se, and not the amended motion.
If you accept it as an amendment, then we have an amended motion. If you don't, then we have to vote on the amendment as it's written here.
I know that you were asking about the timeline, Madam Boucher.
Before I go to Mr. Calandra, do you have any statement on the timeline?
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
I sincerely believe it could take two to three weeks. So we could alternate between our studies as we had done during the last session, with our study on violence against aboriginal women one day and the issue of maternal and infant health the other. It is a bit like what we did with the two studies before Christmas.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
All right. We have a suggestion as to how this would go.
Madam Demers, I need your okay. Are you accepting this? If not, we have to deal with the amendment.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
You accept. All right. So what we have now is an amended motion.
Mr. Calandra, we're going to go to an amended motion. Is this pertinent to that?
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
No. It was the same thing that Ms. Boucher said, so I'm good.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Okay. So now that we have an amended motion, the amended motion reads:
That the committee study maternal and infant health in all its aspects following the government's announcement to make maternal and infant health a priority at the G8 in June that Canada will be hosting.
Are you fine with that?
I'll read it in English. It reads: “That the Committee study maternal and infant health in all of its aspects following the government's announcement to make maternal and child health a priority at the G8 in June that Canada will be hosting”.
Now we will entertain discussion on this motion. If you don't wish any further discussion, I'll call the question.
Yes, Cathy.
Conservative
Cathy McLeod Conservative Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I think it might be worthwhile to have some discussion. Certainly, from your background as a physician, you realize that maternal and child health is a massive topic for discussion. If we do it, we need to do it properly. That is my only recommendation. I think we will perhaps be looking at progressing much more slowly on our other study if we do this properly.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
There is also the question of whether we will accept that it be done alternately; that we would do the aboriginal study, then we would come to this, then we would do the aboriginal one, and then we would come to this. Because if that's how you're going to do it, it can take as long as you like, really, until the fall. I would like to suggest that it will take time to do it in all of its aspects.
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
Madam Chair, it is imperative that we complete the study before June so we may present our findings. So, we have the remainder of April and the month of May. If we cannot agree on that, there is no point. I am well aware of the fact that a study of all aspects of maternal and infant health is a great deal of work. It is probably something that even doctors—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Cathy raised a very good point. The interesting thing here is that there is no timeline in your motion saying that it has to be done before June. The motion just says “following the government's announcement” and to make this “a priority at the G8 in June”. It doesn't give you a timeline that it has to finish before that. You're just saying that the government made their timeline for the purposes of the G8, and as a result of that, we want to study it.
I just want to explain to you what the motion, as written, means, so that you can be sure when you vote that you know what you're voting for. I think that Madam Demers is suggesting that this must be finished before the G8 in June. So this is a totally different motion. This is not the motion we're discussing. I don't want to get into semantics too much here, but what it means is what it means.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
No, this is a motion that we've always had here. We debated it last time, and we gave it up. This is a friendly amendment, which has been accepted.
Mr. Calandra.
Conservative
Paul Calandra Conservative Oak Ridges—Markham, ON
Can we deal with the amendment? Then, perhaps, if she wants to suggest an amendment, we'll do a timeline so that you get the timeline before the G8, if that's what you want. I think we could accept that.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Yes, that's fine.
Nicole, would you like to out an amendment to this amended motion?
Bloc
Nicole Demers Bloc Laval, QC
So long as we are done before the month of May. That is the amendment I would like to add, that we complete our work before the end of May.
Conservative
Sylvie Boucher Conservative Beauport—Limoilou, QC
That was not written In the original recommendation.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Excuse me. As the committee is discussing this, for your information I would like the committee to know that in the next two weeks in April, we already have people coming in. In the four weeks in May, we have one week to consider the report on non-traditional jobs. Then we have two weeks of travel. Then we have a break week. Then we were going to have two weeks of travel.
If you wish to do this, you may remove the two weeks of travel from the middle of May and just plug in there your two weeks for this study. As for “in all of its aspects”, it's not going to occur in two weeks of study. I just want you to know that.
Mr. Calandra.