Debates of May 11th, 2016

Sports

[Kent Hehr, Liberal, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Scarborough—Rouge Park for his question, and the care and compassion he shows to veterans each and every day.

The Invictus Games are a great opportunity for our injured soldiers to take part in competition, as well as to rebuild their lives with camaraderie. It was a great honour to be in Toronto with the Prime Minister and Prince Harry where we saw our injured soldiers head off to Orlando, where they did us proud.

I am also proud to announce that we are supporting the 2017 Invictus Games to the tune of $10 million.

National Defence

[Pierre Paul-Hus, Conservative, Charlesbourg—Haute-Saint-Charles, QC]

Mr. Speaker, 21 years ago, the Liberals and Jean Chrétien closed Royal Military College Saint-Jean, which they felt was no longer needed. The former Conservative government remedied the situation by reopening the institution in 2008 and promising to reinstate university studies.

When asked about this last Saturday in Montreal, the Minister of National Defence was evasive.

Can the minister confirm that he plans to reinstate university studies at Royal Military College Saint-Jean in Quebec?

[John McKay, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of National Defence]

Mr. Speaker, as the hon. member will know, the minister has initiated an entire defence review process in which we have invited all members to engage.

Clearly, the issue of the reopening of the Saint-Jean college is of utmost importance to the minister and to my colleague, who has tirelessly promoted this reopening. I hope that all members do engage in the defence review process, and certainly that would be one of the serious considerations.

Democratic Reform

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Prime Minister.

For the recently announced public engagement and consultation process on electoral reform to have any legitimacy, I completely agree with the hon. minister that we must all, on all sides of this place, set partisanship aside.

Therefore, can the Prime Minister give this place his word that the Liberal members of Parliament on that committee will be free to vote in the interest of Canadian democracy, and not merely for partisan advantage?

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, we made the commitment in the last election to ensure that this was the last election to be held under first past the post. We are keeping that promise with a process that reflects our shared values of fairness, inclusiveness, gender equity, openness, and mutual respect.

On the issue of committee members, I can assure the Leader of the Green Party that I will no more control the Liberal members on that committee than she will control the Green member on that committee.

Presence in Gallery

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of Her Excellency Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department of Malaysia.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I also draw the attention of hon. members to the presence in the gallery of Hon. Brian Gallant, Premier of New Brunswick.

[Some hon. members]

Hear, hear!

[Steven Blaney, Conservative, Bellechasse—Les Etchemins—Lévis, QC]

Mr. Speaker, a great deal was said about accomplishments during oral question period today. In the interest of transparency and openness, I would like to seek the unanimous consent of the House to table the Debates of the House of Commons of April 22, 2015.

This is about the tabling of the agreement on land—

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

Apparently, we do not have unanimous consent in the House. I imagine that the member is not particularly surprised by that.

Government Response to Petitions

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 36(8) I have the honour to table, in both official languages, the government's response to six petitions.

While I am on my feet, I move:

That the House do now proceed to Orders of the Day.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

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

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

No.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

All those in favour will please say yea.

[Some hon. members]

Yea.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

All those opposed will please say nay.

[Some hon. members]

Nay.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

In my opinion, the yeas have it.

And five or more members having risen:

Call in the members.

(The House divided on the motion, which was agreed to on the following division:)

Vote #53

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

I declare the motion carried.

Bill C-7—Time Allocation Motion

[Dominic LeBlanc, Liberal, Leader of the Government in the House of Commons]

Mr. Speaker, I move:

That in relation to Bill C-7, An Act to amend the Public Service Labour Relations Act, the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board Act and other Acts and to provide for certain other measures, not more than one further sitting day shall be allotted to the consideration of the report stage and one sitting day shall be allotted to the third reading stage of the said bill; and

That fifteen minutes before the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders on the day allotted to the consideration of the report stage and on the day allotted to the third reading stage of the said bill, any proceedings before this House shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and in turn every question necessary for the disposal of the stage of the bill then under consideration shall be put forthwith and successively without further amendment or debate.

[The Speaker, Liberal, Geoff Regan]

There will now be a 30-minute period for questions. I would ask members who wish to ask questions during this period to stand so the Chair has an idea of how many members wish to take part in this session.

The hon. member for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, we have a bill of critical importance before us, and again we see the Liberals, who protested so adamantly in the last Parliament to give any time allocation whatsoever, really beating any record that was ever set by the previous government in terms of their lack of respect for important debate.

What we have here is important legislation, and we have changes to important legislation that need thorough reflection. There was the component, I believe it was clauses 41 and 42, that was removed that talked about how the compensation would be provided.

Most important, we need to have time to really reflect on the democratic process of having open and transparent voting or card checks versus what most provinces do, which is they have secret ballots. That was something that was missed in the amendments. I think it is critical, and we need to spend a lot of time in this Parliament reflecting on that particular issue.

[Scott Brison, Liberal, President of the Treasury Board]

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that our government inherited a situation of considerable urgency when we formed government in November. In fact, we inherited a situation where the Supreme Court decision had put a deadline of January. We sought an extension to May, a four-month extension at that time. Again, it was the previous government that allowed a situation to develop where there was significant urgency. The Supreme Court decision was that RCMP members ought to have the right for collective bargaining. This legislation provides that. Beyond that, we have had 10 hours of debate and 34 members of Parliament have participated in that debate. Further to that, unlike the Conservative government previously, we actually accepted legislative changes made by a committee to this legislation.