Evidence of meeting #32 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was transport.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you.
I want to thank our witnesses. We have a bit of committee business that we have to do in camera, so thanks again for being here.
I ask that if there are any media here who want to ask the witnesses questions, please go outside. I have to clear the room because we have to go in camera.
Do you have a point of order, Mr. McGuinty?
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Before we go in camera, Mr. Chair, I want to raise a procedural matter with you, which I think is very important. It relates to the minutes of the meeting of Tuesday, May 13.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Correct. They clearly state that the committee adopted the subcommittee report indicating that Transport Canada officials and officials from the Auditor General's office would be invited to appear on Thursday, June 12. Do you recollect that, Mr. Chair?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I know they were invited. I can't remember the dates, Mr. McGuinty—
Liberal
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
The first point I want to raise as a point of order, Mr. Chair, is that I understand that you, and not the trusted non-partisan official tasked with arranging these things for this committee and all committees, wrote to the Office of the Auditor General to invite him—
Conservative
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
In your letter to him, you say it serves as an unofficial invitation to appear before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transportation, Infrastructure, and Communities.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Can you help me understand, just in terms of orders, Mr. Chair, why you, and not the clerk, would invite the Auditor General?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
The clerk would have been the official. I was putting them on notice. It was something that I dealt with. If you have a problem with that, well, I guess you—
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Is that normal practice, Mr. Chair? I haven't seen that happen before in my almost 10 years here.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
I don't know about you, Mr. McGuinty, but any time that I have a witness that I want to put on a list at all, I contact them in advance to make sure that they're even willing to come. In this case here, I wanted to see them here as much as you.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Okay. The second point I want to raise, then, is that when the Auditor General actually agrees to come in his note to you, he says, “I am happy to make myself available to the committee on June 12 to further discuss findings in a 2013 chapter”. My understanding is that you, as chair, unilaterally decided to—
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
But you're only reading part of it. If you go in there, he has nothing to report, and I made the decision that if there's nothing to report, we'll have him at a later date when he does have something to report.
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
With all due respect, Mr. Chair, is that your unilateral discretion?
Conservative
Liberal
David McGuinty Liberal Ottawa South, ON
Are you not bound under the rules to proceed on the basis of the agreement, as I described from the minutes of the proceedings on Tuesday, May 13, 2014?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Look, Mr. McGuinty, if you have a problem with that decision, that's fine, you made that point. But when I attend a meeting, I like it to be productive. If the gentleman has nothing to add at this time, it wouldn't then be a very productive meeting. So I made the decision. Obviously, you don't agree with that and I accept that. Do you have any other points of order?
