Procedure and House Affairs committee  We have the report for you. You will need unanimous consent of the House to allow you to revert to routine proceedings at three o'clock in order to table that report.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In accordance with Standing Order 92(3)(b)--and I'll read it--Where the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, following proceedings pursuant to section (2) --which is where the sponsor has the right to appear and argue that it be made votable--does not concur in the report of the Subcommittee on Private Members’ Business and is of the opinion that the item should remain votable, it shall report that decision to the House forthwith, and the report shall, upon presentation, be deemed concurred in.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's Standing Order 91.1.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My understanding is that Mr. Van Loan raised a point of order in the House regarding the acceptability of the bill Mr. Silva introduced. The Speaker delivered his ruling indicating that, in his view, the bill did not contravene the rules he was bound to apply, and he left it to the procedure and House affairs committee to determine whether, under the standing orders for private members' business, the bill would be votable.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We will get information for you on that. I'm advised that when some committees travel across the country there are different controls when they meet outside of Ottawa. Sometimes people come into committee rooms and either plug into the sound systems or use electronic devices on the road.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The bill has received second reading. It has been referred to the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. I believe it has started its hearings, but I'm not sure exactly when those hearings will be completed.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, you don't.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Just for information, under the Standing Orders, the sponsor has five sitting days after the deposit of this report to appear before this committee to appeal the decision. Once the report is tabled in the House, assuming that is a decision of this committee to table it more quickly than that, then there is the appeal mechanism in the Standing Orders for the secret ballot appeal, but the member can short-circuit that by giving written notice to the table that he or she does not intend to take advantage of that opportunity.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'd like to clarify. The background was, of course, that the two items went forward—Mr. Nadeau's and Ms. Bell's. The criteria say that a matter must have been voted on for a criterion 3 to apply. At the time they were put on the order of precedence—it was at the beginning of the session—neither had been voted on.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The other concern that was expressed by the members of the subcommittee was that if a member had two hours of debate on motion one, if it was ruled out of order and they were given a chance to substitute another item, they would end up getting more than one opportunity to have an item debated in private members' business.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  May 23. That's for a draft report.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I'm sorry. It says, “Bidders MUST demonstrate their ability to launch the public consultations by March 9, 2007”.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In the last Parliament, the predecessor to this committee recommended a parallel process in its 43rd report. One would be a special committee of the House, and separately there would be a citizens' consultation group. I believe it was anticipated that the citizens' consultation group would do the polling, but it would be undertaken at the expense of the government.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, but they could. That would be I think the intent of part of Mr. Preston's motion. This citizen consultation process would feed into a Procedure and House Affairs study, but that is for you to decide at this point in time. I assume the government will make the recommendations or the results of this process available to whichever committee ends up studying this issue.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The timeframe in the original report had a closing date of the end of January for the tendering process, and, I'm sorry but I don't recall.... It's to complete the project to draft report stage by May 23, 2007. So public consultations were to begin by March 9, 2007, with a draft report by May 23, 2007.