I was quoting Sir Winston Churchill.
The motion before us today reads:
That, in the opinion of this House, government appointments of ambassadors, consuls general and heads of regulatory bodies and Crown corporations should automatically be referred to the appropriate committee of the House--
As it was tabled yesterday, the motion of the hon. member for Charlesbourg—Jacques-Cartier is redundant, since it quite accurately reflects what is currently provided under the Standing Orders of the House of Commons. In fact, it is so similar that we wondered if it should be withdrawn and replaced with another motion, since it is asking us to do what is already being done. I will get back to this.
Standing Order 110 provides that a minister of the Crown shall lay upon the Table a certified copy of an order in council stating that a certain individual has been appointed to a certain non-judicial post, not later than five sitting days after the order in council is published in the Canada Gazette .
Therefore, this document is automatically tabled in the House after five sitting days. I am the minister who signs these documents; it is my duty as government House leader. I am well aware of the fact that this is done, because we table such documents in the House on a regular basis. I am not the only one who is saying that it is being done and I will get back to this later on.
Standing Order 110 also provides, and I quote, “The same shall be deemed to have been referred to a standing committee specified... for its consideration”. It is deemed to have been referred to the committee.This is done automatically. Again, and I am repeating it for the benefit of the member opposite, this is deemed to have been done immediately.
Standing Order 111 provides that committees have up to 30 sitting days to examine the qualifications and competency of the appointee or nominee. Hon. members automatically have this right.
Of course, the decision of whether or not to call an appointee or nominee to appear before the committee is up to the committee. The hon. member just made a not so eloquent plea, but a plea nevertheless, asking that the committee have greater autonomy, and now he is telling us that the committee should not have the power to decide which witnesses it wants to hear. The comments made by the member opposite are totally contradictory.
In any case, the issue is referred to the committee. It is done automatically after five days. Therefore, the motion is totally redundant.
Standing Order 111 also requires that the curriculum vitae of the person be provided to the committee. Not only is the appointment automatically referred to committee after five days, thereby giving the committee 30 days to study the matter, the committee also has the curriculum vitae of the candidate, which allows it to decide whether or not to call the witness to appear before the committee in question.
Therefore, the House of Commons already has the procedure in question in place. I wish I could say that it was this government that established these procedures, but they predate our government, which has been in office since 1993. These procedures have been in place in the House for 15 years. They have been in place for so long that I used to have hair when they were introduced, which was some time ago.
Virtually all appointments that are not judicial appointments are tabled in the House. The member did not refer to judicial appointments in his motion. I am not among those who would like to see justices of the Supreme Court of Canada dragged before committees, as is done in the United States. I think that would be a bad idea, and I presume the member agrees with me, since he did not mention it in his motion.
The government believes that parliamentary scrutiny supports the selection of qualified candidates for senior government positions. This is a commitment that we confirmed in our 1993 red book.
Since we were elected in 1993, approximately 4,300 appointments have been tabled in the House. My predecessor, the former member for Windsor West, and I signed for 4,300 of these appointments which were tabled in the House and automatically referred to committee. What the hon. member is asking, we have done 4,300 times. One would think, not after once, or twice or three times, that after 4,300 times the hon. member would get it but inevitably he has not, or whomever researched this motion and put it under his name failed to do so.
Committees have had the opportunity to review each of these 4,300 appointments and the committees have been free to choose how they exercise that authority.
In the unlikely event that some members are tempted to doubt what I just said, surely the member opposite will believe his colleague, his party's critic for foreign affairs, the member for Mercier. I quote. Even though her name is given in the quote, since it is unparliamentary, I will not repeat it:
The member for Mercier—this is the headline from the release—asks that Alfonso Gagliano appear before the foreign affairs committee
She could have said the hon. Alfonso Gagliano, out of respect for parliamentary traditions, however. Here is the text of her release:
The Bloc Quebecois critic for foreign affairs and member for Mercier—followed by her name—moved a motion today calling for the former minister—to appear before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade—
Here is what she did in the next paragraph, and again, I am quoting:
She invokes Standing Orders 110 and 111—and this is still in her words—which stipulate that the committee may call a person appointed by order in council to appear within thirty sitting days following the date the appointment was tabled, in order to examine the person's qualifications and competence to perform the duties of the post to which he or she has been appointed or nominated.
This is not me who said this, this is the member for Mercier. And that is not all. Finally, the member for Mercier, also in her release, expresses satisfaction. Here is why, and I quote:
The hon. member—I am not reading out her name—indicates that the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade has, since 1997, received 11 invitations to appear in connection with appointments by order in council and none of these was met by a refusal.
She expressed satisfaction that, in 100% of the cases in which the committee members had requested the attendance of an individual, the individual in question had attended. She was pleased with that result. She was pleased with the fact that standing orders 110 and 111 had been complied with, these orders requiring—as I have already pointed out—that nominations be automatically referred to the committee, and that in 100% of the cases when they had been invited to appear, particularly by the foreign affairs committee, people had in fact appeared.
She was pleased that the system had worked 100% of the time, and surely would continue to do so. Then, guess what? Within a few days, the hon. Alfonso Gagliano was also summoned to appear before the parliamentary committee.
We can see just how redundant and empty the Bloc Quebecois deputation here is when it is incapable of presenting on an opposition day anything that is not redundant or has already been addressed by the government.
I found what the hon. member had to say this morning concerning the power of the PMO. I will deviate from my text here to address this. It is most interesting.
I recall a time—as you do perhaps, Mr. Speaker, with your objectivity toward such matters—a time in the past, when there was a certain government in Quebec. one might say with PQ leanings, that summoned its officers overseas to it, and required them to bow the knee to sovereignty. The premier required support for sovereignty in exchange for job security.
People will remember those actions by the separatist government of Quebec.