Debates of March 12th, 1997

Supply

[The Acting Deputy Chairman (Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais)]

Order, please. House in committee of the whole on Bill C-87, an act for granting Her Majesty certain sums of money for the public service of Canada for the financial year ending March 31, 1997.

On clause 2

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Madam Speaker, I would like to ask the President of the Treasury Board if the bill is absolutely identical to those we adopted in the previous years.

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

Madam Speaker, this bill is absolutely identical to bills adopted in the past.

(Clauses 2 to 7 inclusive agreed to.)

(Appendix agreed to.)

(Clause 1 agreed to.)

(Preamble agreed to.)

(Title agreed to.)

(Bill reported.)

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

moved that Bill C-87, an act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the public service of Canada for the financial year ending March 31, 1997, be concurred in at report stage (without amendments).

[The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais)]

Is it the pleasure of the House to adopt the motion?

[Bob Kilger, Liberal, Stormont—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, if the House would agree, I would propose that you seek unanimous consent that members who voted on the previous motion be recorded as having voted on the motion now before the House, with Liberal members voting yea.

[Madeleine Dalphond-Guiral, Bloc, Laval Centre, QC]

The members of the official opposition will be voting no, Madam Speaker.

[Chuck Strahl, Reform, Fraser Valley East, BC]

Madam Speaker, Reform Party members present will vote no.

[Bill Blaikie, NDP, Winnipeg—Transcona, MB]

Madam Speaker, NDP members present vote no.

[Elsie Wayne, Progressive Conservative, Saint John, NB]

Madam Speaker, I will be voting no.

[Jag Bhaduria, Liberal, Markham—Whitchurch-Stouffville, ON]

Madam Speaker, I will be voting yes on the motion.

[The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais)]

I declare the motion carried.

(Motion agreed to.)

[The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais)]

When shall the bill be read the third time? Now?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Bob Kilger, Liberal, Stormont—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, if you were to seek it I believe you would find unanimous consent to apply the vote taken on the previous motion to the motion now before the House.

[The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais)]

Is that agreed?

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[Bob Kilger, Liberal, Stormont—Dundas, ON]

Madam Speaker, I believe there would be a consent to apply the results of the previous vote to the following: the supply bill motion for third reading; concurrence in interim supply for the year ending March 31, 1998 and for the supply bill motion for second reading and reference to committee of the whole.

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

moved that the bill be read the third time and passed.

(Motion agreed to, bill read the third time and passed.)

Interim Supply

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board and Minister responsible for Infrastructure]

moved:

That the House concur in Interim Supply as follows:

That a sum not exceeding $33,194,135,278.35 being composed of:

(1) nine-twelfths ($25,397,186,592.00) of the total of the amounts of the items set forth in the Main Estimates for the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998 which were laid upon the Table Thursday, February 20, 1997, and except for those items below:

(2) eleven-twelfths of the total of the amount of Canadian Heritage Vote 35, Environment Vote 5, Finance Votes 15 and 20, Fisheries and Oceans Vote 10, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Vote 5, Human Resources Development Votes 5 and 35, Industry Votes 30 and 35, Justice Vote 1, National Defence Vote 10, Natural Resources Vote L15, Public Works and Government Services Votes 20 and 25, Transport Votes 1 and 20, and Treasury Board Votes 5 and 10 (Schedule A) of the said Estimates, $2,423,142,384.68;

(3) ten-twelfths of the total of the amount of Environment Votes 1 and 10, Human Resources Development Vote 10, Indian Affairs and Northern Development Votes 15 and 40, Industry Vote 40, Justice Vote 5, Parliament Vote 1, Public Works and Government Services Vote 15, and Transport Vote 35 (Schedule B) of the said Estimates, $5,373,806,301.67;

be granted to Her Majesty on account of the fiscal year ending March 31, 1998.

(Motion agreed to.)

Appropriation Act No. 1, 1997-98

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

moved that Bill 88, an act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the public service for the financial year ending March 31, 1998, be read the first time.

(Motion deemed adopted and bill read the first time.)

[Marcel Massé, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

moved that Bill C-88, an act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the public service for the financial year ending March 31, 1998, be read the second time and referred to committee of the whole.

(Motion agreed to, bill read the second time and the House went into committee thereon, Mrs. Ringuette-Maltais in the chair.)

[The Assistant Deputy Chairman]

Order. House in committee of the whole on Bill C-88, an act for granting to Her Majesty certain sums of money for the public service of Canada for the financial year ending March 31, 1998.

[Monte Solberg, Reform, Medicine Hat, AB]

Madam Chairman, I rise on a point of order. The main estimates were tabled on Thursday, February 20. Supplementary estimates (B) were tabled on Monday, March 3.

In 1968, the House adopted the McGrath report on procedural reforms. The spirit of the reforms to the business of supply was to give all members an opportunity to examine the main estimates thoroughly so that they would be well informed when they voted.

We will be voting tonight on $33 billion for interim supply which we have had only eight sitting days to examine. Supplementary estimates (B) contain $806 million worth of expenditures which we have only had six days to examine.

I wonder why the government is rushing to pass these supply motions when the opposition could have at least until March 30, 1997 to further examine both sets of estimates.

On clause 2

[Gilles Duceppe, Bloc, Laurier—Sainte-Marie, QC]

Madam Speaker, once again, I would ask the President of the Treasury Board to tell me if this bill is in every respect consistent with the one concurred in a few minutes ago.