Transport Committee on June 11th, 2007

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

Yes, it is, Mr. Chair.

Obviously, I feel very strongly that it is not appropriate to allow Bill C-6 to override the Transportation of Dangerous Goods Act and the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act, but we've had this debate and others have disagreed. That becomes more of a public domain debate. I don't think we need to spend more time arguing that here around this table.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Thank you.

I have a motion I want to deal with in a moment about the extension of the meeting, but I think we have an opportunity here now to finish clause 2.

Therefore I would ask, shall clause 2 carry as amended?

(Clause 2 as amended agreed to)

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Now we have a motion from Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm just wondering if the clerk could give us an idea of where we sit now with the amendments, how many clauses are left to deal with.

Do we need the motion? I'd rather just carry on. It appears that we could probably be done in 20 or 30 minutes, the whole bill, so do we need the motion to deal with it, or can we just carry on as a committee and get this piece of legislation done?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Mr. Julian.

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

Mr. Chairman, we were going through clause-by-clause. We do require more time. I disagree with Mr. Jean that somehow, magically, in 20 minutes we're going to have everything wrapped up.

There are also a number of other issues that have been brought forward. We have the government pushing for extended sessions now, so we'll be working into the evening in the House. We also have the fact of what happened last Friday, where Liberal and Bloc and NDP members were caught by what was quite a mean-spirited action by the government in the House of Commons to try to force through the budget and force through essentially emergency procedures.

So not only do we have the extension of the House hours, but we also have to be in the House because of the fact that this government, quite frankly, has not acted in an appropriate fashion.

For all those reasons, I regret to say I can't agree to extensions in the time here because of what the government has been doing in the House.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Mr. Jean.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'd like to move the motion, Mr. Chair. I'm surprised at Mr. Julian, because he actually put forward an amendment on my motion last week to have it today. Nevertheless, I would like to deal with it, and I think it's appropriate.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

To extend by an hour, up to 6:30 if required.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Do you want a friendly amendment? Make one.

[Joe Volpe, Liberal, Eglinton—Lawrence, ON]

What we're saying is we don't need that. I think the—

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Do I understand there's general consent to do that, to extend it for an hour?

I don't need it to be unanimous; it's a majority decision. So we'll extend until 6:30, as needed.

Moving on then, we're into “Administrative penalties, enforcement”.

[An hon. member]

Did we finalize clause 12?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

We're on amendment BQ-22, page 64.

Mr. Laframboise.

[Mario Laframboise, Bloc, Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, QC]

I withdraw it, Mr. Chairman.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

It's been withdrawn. Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

Mr. Julian.

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

Mr. Chairman, please clarify, where are you moving? We were in “Provisions of other Acts prevail”.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

We've gone to amendment BQ-22. We're on clause 12. BQ-22, as you may recall, was moved down from the first block of discussion into the “Provisions of other Acts”, which was the last block on clause 12. It's on page 64.

It's been suggested by the mover that it be withdrawn, and there's agreement by the committee.

We have amendment NDP-12.1.1, which was also going to be moved down. It's similar to BQ-22. It's identical, in fact.

Since we've agreed to withdraw the other, is there agreement to withdraw...?

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

You're not talking about NDP-12.2, Mr. Chairman?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

No, I'm talking about NDP-12.1.1.

[Brian Jean, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

It was the same as the Bloc....

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Don Bell]

It was the same as amendment BQ-22, which has been withdrawn.

Since the two are identical and there has been a committee decision to withdraw amendment BQ-22, then amendment NDP-12.1.1 is withdrawn.

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

If I could say, Mr. Chair, that is a nice try. However, it's not the committee that withdraws an amendment; it is the individual mover who withdraws it.

It's Mr. Laframboise who withdrew his amendment, so--