Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Today I have with me Marie-Andrée Lajoie--she appeared with me last week as well-- the clerk assistant, Committees Directorate, and Marc Bosc, deputy clerk of the House, in charge of procedural services. As we had discussed last week, we have returned, fi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would be a majority decision, as usual.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Perhaps Marie-Andrée can explain what we're thinking.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't recall having received such a proposal. However, through you, Mr. Chairman, I know that there had been some suggestions with regard to the circumstances in which committees would resume their deliberations. One of the factors guiding us in drafting the standing orders is

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No. I know there were discussions about potentially only having this suspension motion activated if it was a deferred vote that was scheduled and not an unscheduled vote, for example, where this member be now heard or that kind of thing. Again, the problem when you start trying

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, you are correct. We are confusing the two: quorum calls and motions seeking, for example, that a member be now heard. It is not the same thing. If there is a quorum call, it is not a vote, and this would not apply.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chairman, I asked my assistant to go and prepare a revised document with both the French and the English versions, so that you can look at the text in both languages.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think the criteria to which committees have held themselves in terms of allowing in camera discussions to become public have been quite high. The decision has always rested with the committee in question by majority vote, as far as I know, and we don't hav

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right now, the decision to go in camera is a decision taken by individual committees. There are really no general criteria. The most frequent use of in camera proceedings is when committees are either discussing their future business or where they're studying draft reports, which

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, if I might, I'll just point out that I think this goes a long way to doing what the committee wants done. I should point out, however, that all it does is give the chair the duty to suspend if there isn't unanimous consent to continue sitting. One can envisage a situat

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I understand exactly what you're saying, Mr. Chairman. As a precaution, you have added unanimous consent to continue to sit. I was simply commenting that you may want to include the words "to adjourn". However, if that is not what the committee wants, it is not my place to tell i

Procedure and House Affairs committee  First of all, you put it on the order paper, and it is on the list of private members' items, which is sort of ad infinitum. It's only when they come out in the lottery or in the replenishment of the order of precedence that they actually become a tradable item. You can't take it

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's right. If you have two similar items and you have an item that has, by good fortune and trading and what have you, come up and been judged votable and is now proceeding, but you have a very similar or substantially the same item coming behind, then that will be non-votable

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  And that has been picked by the lottery.