Transport Committee on June 10th, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Do you have any other points of order?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

What I would put to you, Sir, is that under the rules this is abnormal practice. In fact, what should be occurring is that once you hear back from the Auditor General, you should table his response to this committee in its entirety, and you can perhaps raise this point and have a discussion about it, and let this committee decide after it is already approved our extending an invitation to the Auditor General.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Okay, point taken.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It's not a discretionary matter for the Chair to decide.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

That's your opinion.

Do you have any other point of order?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It's not an opinion. I'm asking you and the clerk to give me an idea, please, in terms of the rules of procedure in this committee, how this is working and how it's going to work going forward.

It's not an opinion; it's a point of order.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

As far as the Auditor General is concerned, who is the witness in question here, he will be invited again.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

When will he be invited?

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

When would you like him to be invited?

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

It's not for me to decide, but for this committee to decide—

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Of course it is.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

—which is why we rendered a decision to invite him in the first place.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Based on the letter—and I don't have it front of me—I'm thinking that he'll probably, at some point when he has something to add to it, get back to me or get back to the clerk, and he can be invited. If you want to say right now that we want to invite him back at the first meeting in the fall, then say so.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'd like to have him back here on June 12, pursuant to the decision this committee made.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Well, if you want me to cancel, or have the clerk cancel the witnesses we have for Thursday--

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

No, I think we could add him. Why don't we add him? He says he's ready to make himself available to the committee on June 12.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

What is the wish of the committee?

Mr. Watson.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

I'd like to speak to the point of order, because the consent of the committee—at least from this side—was that the Auditor General would appear to respond to the work plan developed by Transport Canada. That was our consent in suggesting that the Auditor General appear, not simply to appear in regard to a report for which he's already appeared before this committee. That's a waste of our time. So if Mr. McGuinty wants to raise the consent of the committee, our consent was given contingent—and you can check the blues on that—to his appearing to respond to Transport Canada's updated action and work plan in relation to his report, not in relation to his own findings in the 2013 report. I would therefore suggest the Chair has actually fulfilled the consent of the committee.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. Who's contingency is Mr. Watson speaking about?

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

The government members here—

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Oh, I see.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

—supported the Auditor General appearing before this committee to respond to Transport Canada's action plan on his report, not about the general findings of the report. We've already done that exhaustively.

[David McGuinty, Liberal, Ottawa South, ON]

Through you, Mr. Chair, I didn't know that Mr. Watson and the government members had the right to impose contingencies on committee decisions. The committee made a decision, which I can read out here: “That, in relation to the study of the Review of the Canadian Transportation Safety Regime, officials from the Department of Transport as well as officials from the Office of the Auditor General of Canada be invited to appear on Thursday, June 12, 2014.” I see no contingency in this writing at all.

[Jeff Watson, Conservative, Essex, ON]

Read the blues, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Larry Miller]

Do you have another point of order?