Evidence of meeting #61 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
The only way you could do that would be to get unanimous consent, I believe, from the committee.
Conservative
Alain Rayes Conservative Richmond—Arthabaska, QC
I agree, so I am asking the committee's permission to discuss my motion immediately. Otherwise, I would like us to deal with it in 48 hours.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
We just have it verbally. We don't have it in both languages—we just have the interpreters.
Does Mr. Rayes have unanimous consent to introduce his motion?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
And on this side?
No, you don't have unanimous consent, Mr. Rayes, but you will be able to move that motion at the next meeting.
Ms. Block.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I think what I would do is go back to Mr. Badawey's suggestion regarding Bill C-49. Just to be clear on what he is suggesting, the measures in Bill C-30 were due to sunset a year ago, and we extended them in the understanding that we would undertake a study on Bill C-30 and bring forward recommendations to the minister.
We undertook that study in September 2016. You reported our findings and recommendations to the House. The minister, then, has had our recommendations on the measures contained in Bill C-30 before him.
What Mr. Badawey is suggesting is that, because we are in this very tight time frame now to deal with these measures that are going to sunset on August 1, this committee now needs to study this legislation throughout the summer, perhaps holding wide consultations with stakeholders, which is what the minister told us he was doing when we tabled the report in the House between that time and now.
What's happening is that members are now being asked to consider meeting in the summer to expedite Bill C-49, which won't actually have any impact on the expiration of the measures in Bill C-30, because this bill will not be passed until the fall.
Is that correct?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
No matter what we do with Bill C-49, it cannot be passed until the House resumes.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
But by taking the time to do the work ahead of time.... Otherwise, if we don't get started on this until September when our normal process starts, with two meetings a week on something as important as this, it's going to take us into December.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
On that, what do you think they are going to do between August 1 and the time when legislation may be passed in October or November?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
To be able to bring forward C-49 and do it earlier than our normal schedule in September, the concern would be to get the witnesses and the 25 or 30 hours of testimony dealt with in a solid week—as Mr. Badawey suggested—so that we would get the bulk of those hearings on Bill C-49 done prior to the House's coming back. Once the House comes back, possibly at that time, the committee would be prepared to go to clause-by-clause.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Again, for clarification, you are asking this committee to extend its hours throughout the summer to work on legislation to help the government pass its legislation in a timely way in the fall.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
That's exactly what Mr. Badawey is suggesting because of the sensitivities of the C-30 clause. Now it's up to the committee.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Regarding those sensitivities, this bill sunsets on August 1, so what are we going to do about those sensitivities between August 1 and when the bill actually gets passed?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Judy Sgro
You do all of the work with the witnesses, have all of the hearings, or as many as possible, so that when the House reconvenes, we would be able to go immediately into clause-by-clause and get that legislation adopted. I say this because the very people who will be most affected by the issue around Bill C-30 and the sunset clause are the farmers, who have concerns about the railways and their reaction.
It's a question of moving things along regardless of....You know how government works and how things do not always move as swiftly as you'd like. Mr. Badawey's suggestion is on whether the committee would be interested in putting forward three or four days, mid-September, before the House resumes, to get some of the witnesses in and to get some of the hearings done.
That's the suggestion.
Conservative
Kelly Block Conservative Carlton Trail—Eagle Creek, SK
Again, Madam Chair, I would just suggest that if there were a concern about the sensitivities around this legislation sunsetting on August 1, your government had all means necessary to put this legislation forward in a much more timely way and have it dealt with before these measures sunsetted. I'm not opposed to coming in to deal with this, but I think it should be noted that once again, the opposition is being called upon to go above and beyond to help the government of the day do its job because it didn't deem this piece of legislation worth dealing with before these clauses will sunset on August 1.
Liberal
Vance Badawey Liberal Niagara Centre, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I'm really attempting to remove the politics from this discussion—although the opposition had 10 years to deal with this, and they didn't.
Liberal
