I thank the hon. member for Perth—Wellington, the hon. Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, and the hon. member for Saanich—Gulf Islands for raising the point of order and for their comments on this point of order.
I want to refer them and colleagues to House of Commons Procedure and Practice, second edition, 2009, by O'Brien and Bosc, at page 458, which refers to the question of the committee and says:
The committee is not obliged to report to the House on the appointment, even if it has been examined.
Then it says, down below:
The notice of motion to ratify the appointment may be given at any time during this 30-day period, whether the committee has reported to the House or not, and the motion may be adopted before the end of this period.
Both of these suggest that in fact the report from the committee is not required in order to proceed.
Also, footnote 248 says:
In the Thirty-Ninth Parliament, the name of the candidate for the position of Commissioner of Official Languages (Graham Fraser) was referred to the Standing Committee on Official Languages on September 18, 2006. The notice of motion to ratify the appointment was given on September 27, 2006, and the motion was concurred in on September 29, 2006.
I am informed that in fact in that case the committee did not report.
As a result of these provisions, I am prepared to allow the motion to proceed.