Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order regarding a motion on the Order Paper in the name of the member for Ottawa--Vanier seeking concurrence in the sixth report of the Standing Committee on Official Languages. I believe this is a clear conflict of interest and a violation of Standing Order 21.
As you are aware, I raised the issue of the signature of the member on the report and whether or not that violated Standing Order 21. I argued that the member had a pecuniary interest with the recommendation in the report and as a result, he ought not to have signed off on it.
Mr. Speaker, while you ruled that the member's signature did not violate Standing Order 21, you did make some statements that I believe make a case that the concurrence motion may violate our practices with respect to pecuniary interest. On May 8, 2003 you stated:
In the present case, I believe that it is important to note that the reimbursement is being recommended to the hon. member for Ottawa--Vanier as a reimbursement for legal costs he incurred as a third party intervener. The funds are not, strictly speaking, a grant of money to the member personally, though it must be admitted that, if no reimbursement is made, the hon. member will have suffered a loss and so can be said to have a pecuniary interest in the matter.
The Speaker recognized that the member had a pecuniary interest but that his signature alone did not violate Standing Order 21. Mr. Speaker said:
There is not, as the hon. member for Ottawa--Vanier pointed out, any suggestion either in our written rules or our practice that, in signing a report, the chair takes a position for or against its contents. The signature merely attests that the contents of the report reflect the decisions of the committee.
I concede that in signing the report, the chair of a committee is not taking a position for or against. What I am talking about today is the concurrence motion in the name of the member for Ottawa--Vanier.
As you are aware, Mr. Speaker, concurrence motions are voluntary. As chairman of the official languages committee he may have been obliged to sign the report, but there is absolutely no obligation for him to table a concurrence motion. The motion seeks the House's concurrence in the report. That is taking a position. Therefore the act of giving notice of a motion concurring in a report in which the member has a pecuniary interest puts him in a conflict of interest.
I remind the House that the report names the member and it states that the House of Commons suggest to its Board of Internal Economy to make available a maximum budget of $30,000 to cover a portion of the legal fees incurred by the member for Ottawa--Vanier.
As I stated in my first point of order on this matter, Marleau and Montpetit on page 189 is concerned with members being seen to be impartial and that they should not derive personal benefit or gain from their decisions.
The voluntary action of placing a concurrence motion on the Order Paper is a clear conflict of interest. The motion in the name of the member for Ottawa--Vanier should be removed from the Order Paper.