Mr. Speaker, the government House leader was silent about the Friday of the week that we return. That would be three days after the budget. I wonder if he could indicate if he has plans for that day.
House of Commons photoLost his last election, in 2019, with 34% of the vote.
Business of the House February 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the government House leader was silent about the Friday of the week that we return. That would be three days after the budget. I wonder if he could indicate if he has plans for that day.
Business of the House February 14th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I wonder if the government House leader would indicate his plans for the rest of this week and the first week at least after the House resumes following the upcoming break week.
I think the House would be interested to know how the business of the House will flow, both before and after the budget on February 26.
I wonder if the honourable gentleman could indicate two other things: when does he plan to commence the debate in this House with respect to Afghanistan and when will he be designating the first of the opposition days in this supply period?
Committees of the House February 14th, 2008
How much later?
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change February 13th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the House has just given its unanimous consent to a motion that came to us outside of the ordinary order of precedence. Yesterday, the chief government whip rejected such a practice. He said that it would create a bad precedent.
The precedent now seems to have been set, so in the same spirit of cooperation in the House, I wonder if there is now unanimous consent to adopt Motion No. 427, standing in the name of the hon. member for Davenport, which states:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should designate September of each year as Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
Points of Order February 8th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, on this point, would you reflect on one particular matter.
If a member of the government, that is a minister or a parliamentary secretary, is permitted to answer questions on behalf of committee chairs and those questions to committee chairs can only deal with the agenda of the committee, is it not the implication of this situation, then, that the government, and not the committee, controls the agenda of the committee?
I think this is a very important distinction that should be reflected upon.
Points of Order February 8th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order arising from question periods this week. This week, on two occasions, questions were directed by members of the opposition to committee chairs in the House, which as you know is perfectly permissible under our rules of order.
Today, a question was directed to a committee chair who happens to be a member of the opposition and you appropriately recognized that committee chair to respond to the question that was directed toward her.
Yesterday, however, a question was directed toward a committee chair who happened to be a member of the government. The member was present at the time and he was able to answer the question. He scurried out of the House after the government House leader started to answer the question.
However, the point is this, if the question is directed to the committee chair, then it is the committee chair who must respond to that question and not just a general member of the government.
The point is, when a question is directed to a minister or to a parliamentary secretary, it is perfectly permissible for any member of the government to respond on behalf of the government.
However, when the question is directed to a committee chair, it does not have to do with the administrative responsibility of the government. It has to do with the agenda of the committee and only the committee chair or in his or her absence, the vice-chair of the committee, has actually the knowledge and the capacity to answer that question.
Otherwise, Mr. Speaker, you would be implying, by allowing a member of the government to answer, that in fact the government controls the agenda of committees. That is not the case.
Committees are masters of their own house. The government does not control the agenda of the committee and therefore, when a question is directed to a committee chair, only the chair or the vice-chair has the capacity to answer.
Mr. Speaker, I am sure this situation has arisen inadvertently, although the government was obviously trying to stifle that particular answer yesterday.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask you to look at this question seriously and give us some guidance in future as to when a question is directed to a committee chair, is it permissible for a member of the government to answer, that is a minister or parliamentary secretary, or does it in fact have to be the committee chair himself or herself? We believe it is in fact the latter.
Government Accountability February 8th, 2008
Next, Mr. Speaker, they will be firing the elections commissioner.
It is a dishonest government begging for an election before it gets caught. The Conservatives want to stifle investigations into their ethical failures: safety regulators fired to hide Conservative incompetence; untendered contracts to cronies and friends; Conservative interference in civic elections; and their election financing scam to violate national spending limits by a million bucks, and swipe an extra $700,000 in tax paid subsidies.
Why will the government not come clean about Conservative corruption?
Election Expenses February 8th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, the elections commissioner says that Conservatives and only Conservatives ran an election financing scam to violate spending limits. But that is no surprise. The Prime Minister went to court back in the 1990s to fight spending limits, in that famous case of Harper v Canada. Back then he said:
Is it the Mulroney version of responsibility: “to heck with the facts, I will wait until the next election”?
Flouting the law, flouting the truth, hoping an election will wash away the dirt; why has the Prime Minister become the Brian Mulroney he once despised?
National Community Development Trust Fund Act February 5th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Now that this legislation has been passed, I wonder if the government House leader can tell us when the money will in fact flow to each province.
Business of the House February 5th, 2008
Mr. Speaker, obviously we wish to facilitate the establishment of this measure. We do not think it is adequate, but at least it is something.
I would ask the government House leader, or perhaps the Minister of Transport, Infrastructure and Communities or the Minister of Finance, this question: are the discussions with all of the provinces and territories complete and are all of the premiers in agreement with the distribution formula?