Status of Women Committee on Oct. 26th, 2016

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Totally changing direction, we talked about the Northwest Passage and about trafficking. You had done phase one. So far in phase one of the study, what were you looking at? What sorts of things would you be looking at for phase two if it were to proceed? What did you do in phase one, how would you proceed with phase two, and what are some of the measurements we could look at? What needs to be done going forward?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

You have 30 seconds.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I have 30 seconds.

[Tracy O'Hearn]

You could call me.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[Tracy O'Hearn]

I'm sorry, I want to be very respectful of your time—

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Yes.

[Tracy O'Hearn]

—and you're asking big questions.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Oh, definitely. Tracy, you've done such an outstanding job. We actually had planned another panellist who was unable to come. Being the only person being grilled by this lively crowd here, you've done exceptionally well.

If there are things you'd like to add, though, I would invite you to send them to the clerk.

We're going to continue. I'm going to suspend so that we can let you have an opportunity to depart, and then we'll come back for our committee business.

[Proceedings continue in camera]

[Public proceedings resume]

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

[Public proceedings resume]

We're resuming.

We have the motion before us that came from PROC, other than the (g) from PROC is not the (g) that we have, so I have Ms. Harder on the list to make a comment.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I was just curious if we could have (g) from PROC read to us, just so that we know what's being omitted.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Yes, I can explain.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Some people might have that memorized verbatim, but I don't.

[Christine Moore, NDP, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

I can explain.

The motion on in camera meetings adopted by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs lists the reasons for which a committee may meet in camera. Item (g) of the motion states that a committee may move in camera “when conducting an inquiry pursuant to the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Commons: Sexual Harassment”.

The reason it was removed from our motion is that only the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs is empowered to conduct inquiries into breaches of the Code of Conduct for Members of the House of Commons: Sexual Harassment.

Since the Standing Committee on the Status of Women does not have the authority to conduct such inquiries, that item of the motion initially adopted by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs was removed from the motion we will be dealing with. The reason for its removal is simple: it doesn't apply to our committee because we don't have the necessary authority.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's quite clear to me.

Do you understand?

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

I do understand. Basically, what we're saying is we're functioning under PROC right now, so PROC is just more inclusive than we need to be so....

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

No, she's saying that the element that's missing from this one that's in PROC has to do with addressing harassment, which is their area of responsibility, not ours.

[Rachael Thomas, Conservative, Lethbridge, AB]

Right. But right now, as it stands, we're functioning under PROC, aren't we? No?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Ms. Vandenbeld.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I'm on PROC. Normally there is a tradition that if there are motions passed at PROC, those motions are then considered for other committees, because PROC is seen as a bit of a lead committee when it comes to those things. The motion here actually went through months of parties talking to one another and negotiating to come up with the proper wording. I know the clerk and others were consulted to make sure that the wording met the intentions. This was a long discussion in PROC.

My question to Madam Moore was, if they were deleting something.... So it wasn't the same motion. It seems the only thing we've deleted is something that only falls under the responsibility of PROC, which would be anything to do with code of conduct or sexual harassment or privilege. Those things are automatically referred to PROC. Because our committee does not deal with that issue, we wouldn't need to do it. The rest of the motion would be similar, but it's up to our committee to decide if we want to pass the same motion as PROC or not. I, for one, am in favour of that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

Mr. Fraser.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

I'd like to call the question.

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

All right.

The motion is before us. It's identical to PROC except for the exception that you mentioned.

(Motion agreed to [See Minutes of Proceedings])

Those will be the conditions under which we will go in camera, in future.

I believe that is the end of our committee business for today.

Does anybody have any other items they want to talk about?

Mr. Fraser.

[Sean Fraser, Liberal, Central Nova, NS]

It's not a new item. It's just to make sure I'm clear on the plan of action with respect to our plans. We're all going to take it upon ourselves to review the prior suggestions and circle up with our own caucuses. At the next steering committee meeting they'll form a plan of action for discussion at the whole committee.

Is that correct?

[The Chair, Conservative, Marilyn Gladu]

That's partially true. What I would like is, once your parties have talked about what you'd like to submit as motions, I'd like those motions to go to the clerk so that we know, then, how many we have. Then we can spend time, at future committee business, discussing them and deciding which ones we want to do and what order we want to do them in.