Evidence of meeting #23 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was chair.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Bittle.
I'm going to take that as an amendment. I'm going to be asking members for discussion on the amendment.
Mr. Clerk, are you clear with the amendment?
Thank you.
With that, are there questions or comments on the amendment?
Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I am open to the member's amendment. One thing concerns me, though. If it says “Transport Canada”, does that include the transportation minister and his office?
I am not so sure the minister's office is considered part of Transport Canada.
I am open to the rest.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
Before I go back to Mr. Bittle, Mr. Rogers, do you have a question?
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
I'm sorry, Mr. Chair.
My question was around a confidentiality piece as well—and Mr. Bittle covered that—and around the time frame, because I thought the time frame was much too short to get something done here, to put that kind of request in front of staff given the time we have and with Easter break coming up and all the rest.
I'm still not comfortable with the motion, but I think if the amendment Mr. Bittle has put in there is doable, then perhaps I could consider supporting it.
Liberal
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
With regard to the minister's staff, Monsieur Barsalou-Duval is right that we should probably have something specific in there.
Perhaps then, I will withdraw my motion, if that's allowed. I don't make a lot of amendments. If I'm allowed to withdraw my motion, I will try this again, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Thank you.
The motion then is as follows: “That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(1)(a) an order of the committee do issue for correspondence between Transport Canada including the Minister of Transport's office and the Canadian Transportation Agency regarding cancelled plane tickets, and that these documents be provided to the committee clerk within 30 days following the adoption of this motion.”
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Bittle.
Mr. Clerk, do you have that?
That's good.
Are there any questions or comments on that amendment?
I have Mr. Barsalou-Duval followed by Mr. Sidhu.
Mr. Barsalou-Duval, the floor is yours.
Bloc
Xavier Barsalou-Duval Bloc Pierre-Boucher—Les Patriotes—Verchères, QC
Thank you.
I just wanted to say I would support the amendment with that wording.
Liberal
Maninder Sidhu Liberal Brampton East, ON
Definitely my colleagues make a great point. I think the timeline of 30 days would be helpful to many in the department. We do know, as my colleague was saying, that we're into our third wave. I think here in Ontario there were over 2,000 cases today, which is a record, so it's not simply going into the office to print a few documents. There are certain restrictions we all have to abide by, so I think it's important that we give proper timing to the department to prepare the documents. Probably some of them have to go through translation on top of that. That would involve more folks in this. I think the 30 days would be very helpful.
I'm happy that my colleague agrees that's a good condition to go on. I think there are many other things in terms of the documents that need to be discussed as well.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Thank you so much, Mr. Chair.
I was worried that I wasn't going to get much of an opportunity to speak in my last committee appearance, and that many of you would be disappointed by that, but I'm glad I'm able to remedy that.
I would like to thank Monsieur Barsalou-Duval. He's right, it is an issue of transparency, and I believe Mr. Bachrach mentioned that as well. We should move forward on it.
I appreciate Monsieur Barsalou-Duval's comments with respect to supporting the amendment. I know Mr. Bachrach did appreciate that I wanted to know his thoughts on the previous issue. I would also like to extend that again. I was hoping to hear the views of our friends in the NDP and the Conservative Party, and if this is acceptable, provides the department enough time to process this request, but at the same time it meets with issues of transparency and accountability. If we could hear from them, I would be more than happy to stop talking and move on to the next point.
I see Mr. Bachrach's hand is up, so I will stop talking and hopefully we can get a consensus on this amendment that removes the line about staff and changes it to 30 days.
I appreciate the committee listening.
Liberal
Churence Rogers Liberal Bonavista—Burin—Trinity, NL
Mr. Chair, as Mr. Bittle said a minute ago, if we could follow the amendment and remove “staff ”and go to "at least 30 days", then I think it might be something I could support, because I still think, depending on production of documents, that is not an extensive amount of time.
I certainly couldn't support the original motion.
I want to be clear that the amendment is to remove “staff” and to go to "at least 30 days". I want some clarification on that, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Rogers.
You are correct. We are looking at having it go back to "30 days", as well as “staff” being removed.
With that, I am going to move to Mr. Bachrach.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have no trouble with this amendment, especially since the mover seems to be okay with it.
I am a little confused by removing the reference to staff since I would imagine that reference to “communications by the office” would logically include communication by staff of that office. However, I'm not quite sure where Mr. Bittle is going with that, but the timeline seems like a good compromise. I'm willing to accept that, and I think we should move on to a vote.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Yes, very quickly, and I don't want to worry Mr. Bachrach that I'm up to something, though perhaps sometimes I am, but today is not that day.
It appeared to be an awkward construction, and if we're including the Minister of Transport's office, that includes his staff. I don't want correspondence between staff and the minister to be included, and we've agreed that it isn't, so again, perhaps we'll hear from Ms. Kusie and I'll shut off my mike.
Conservative
Stephanie Kusie Conservative Calgary Midnapore, AB
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
If Mr. Barsalou-Duval supports the amendment, we do too.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Ms. Kusie.
With no further questions or comments, I'm now going to move to the vote on the amendment.
(Amendment agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 )
Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and thank you, members.
We're now going to move to the main motion as amended.
(Motion as amended agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0 [See Minutes of Proceedings])
Thank you, Mr. Clerk, and thank you, members.
It is 5:15 and the lights in my house have yet to start flashing so there's no vote yet. With that said, members, do you want to proceed past this point in time and wait for the bells to start or do you want to adjourn?
What's your call on that, members?
Mr. Bachrach, go ahead.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
My preference would be that we continue. I think, as we did last time, there's plenty of time to make our virtual way over to the virtual chamber and virtually vote.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you for that intervention, Mr. Bachrach. I appreciate that.
Are members all okay with that? Okay.
When the bells do start, we're going to need unanimous consent to continue, so I will be asking for that at that time.
With that, we do have our witnesses still in the room. If I remember correctly—Mr. Clerk, correct me if I'm wrong—Mr. Barsalou-Duval had the floor.