FOPO Committee Meeting

STANDING COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES AND OCEANS

COMITÉ PERMANENT DES PÊCHES ET DES OCÉANS

EVIDENCE

[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]

Wednesday, October 3, 2001

• 1534

[English]

The Clerk of the Committee: Honourable members, I see a quorum. Pursuant to Standing Orders 106(1) and 106(2), your first item of business is to elect a chair. I'm ready to receive motions to that effect.

Mr. Stoffer.

Mr. Peter Stoffer (Sackville—Musquodoboit Valley—Eastern Shore, NDP): I would like to nominate as chair Mr. Wayne Easter from Malpeque. I'd nominate myself, but I'm not allowed to.

The Clerk: Mr. Stoffer has moved that Mr. Easter do take the chair of the committee. Is it the members' pleasure to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

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The Clerk: In that case, I declare Mr. Easter duly elected chair of the committee. I would invite him to take the chair. In his absence, however, I have to proceed to the election of an acting chair. I'll explain it briefly. I can't preside over the election of vice-chairs, that has to be done by an acting Chair. It's perfectly acceptable to elect Mr. Easter in his absence. So we'll elect an acting chair, and then he can take over.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: I nominate Lawrence O'Brien.

The Clerk: Mr. Stoffer has nominated Mr. O'Brien. Is it the pleasure of the committee to adopt the motion?

(Motion agreed to)

The Clerk: Carry on.

Mr. Andy Burton (Skeena, Canadian Alliance): I'd like to nominate John Cummins as vice-chair.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien (Labrador, Lib.)): John Cummins has been nominated.

Mr. Bill Matthews (Burin—St. George's, Lib.): I nominate Peter Stoffer.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): We can only have one at a time.

The Clerk: We can only have one on the floor at a time. It would be, if I remember correctly, more proper to deal with them as they come up.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Mr. Acting Chair, I think Mr. Cummins has done a fine job as vice-chair over the years, and I would like to continue that, so I decline the nomination, but I thank the member from Ontario very much.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Mr. Stoffer has declined. Mr. Cummins is nominated.

(Motion agreed to)

Mr. Bill Matthews: Mr. Chair, I'd like to nominate Mr. Paul Steckle for the position of vice-chair.

(Motion agreed to)

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): We have the report on the Oceans Act. The clerk has indicated that if it's the wish of the committee, we can—

Mr. John Cummins (Delta—South Richmond, Canadian Alliance): I'd make a motion of it. Just follow the same protocol as in the last committee.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): What's that?

Mr. John Cummins: It's just the order in which we proceeded in the last committee.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Okay. Good point. Order in respect of—

Mr. John Cummins: Questioning and all that sort of thing.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Maybe the clerk should explain that, because there may be some new members here.

The Clerk: As a point of procedure, all the routine motions adopted by the committee in meeting number one are actually still in effect. To refresh you, and for the benefit of new members, during that meeting this was the order of questioning adopted by the committee. During the questioning of witnesses, there will be allocated ten minutes for the first questioner for the Canadian Alliance, followed by five minutes for the Bloc, then ten minutes for the Liberals, then five minutes for the Canadian Alliance, then five minutes for the NDP, then five minutes for the Liberals, then five minutes for the Conservatives. If there is a subsequent round, the rotation will be the same, except that all questioning will be for five minutes.

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Some hon. members: Agreed.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Okay, agreed.

Some hon. members: No.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): No? Do we want to go through the debate again and again?

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Mr. Chairman, on the defence committee it's ten, ten, five, five, five, five, and then back to the Alliance again.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): So it's ten, ten—

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Five for the Bloc.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Five to the Bloc.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Five NDP.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Five NDP.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Five Liberal, five Tory, and then it rotates after that. It goes Alliance, Bloc, Liberal, back to the Alliance, and they get fifteen minutes of questioning, even though they're the official opposition. And my colleague here from Newfoundland is way down at the end.

Mr. Loyola Hearn (St. John's West, PC/DR): Each party should get at least one shot at it before there's any doubling up, regardless of the timeframe, whether it's five minutes or ten minutes.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: The Alliance will still get their time, but it's a little quicker for us in the smaller parties to get a question in there.

The Acting Chair (Mr. Lawrence O'Brien): Okay. Is there any debate?

Mr. John Cummins: I think what we did before worked satisfactorily. The fact of the matter is that we are the official opposition and our numbers warranted it. That's what the agreement was in the past, and it's worked.

The Chair (Mr. Wayne Easter (Malpeque, Lib.)): Sorry, I got into....

The Clerk: Mr. Cummins moved that the questioning procedure used in the previous several months continue to be used by the committee. Debate has arisen thereon.

The Chair: And who's on the list to debate? Peter?

Mr. Peter Stoffer: I'd like to move a motion, then, if possible—I know we have to deal with Mr. Cummins' motions first—that the order of questioning go, Alliance ten, Bloc five, Liberals ten, NDP five, Liberals five, Conservatives five, and then it goes back and forth after that.

The Chair: You're moving an amendment. Can you move an amendment?

The Clerk: I think it would effectively be out of order, because Mr. Cummins has moved that it be as before.

The Chair: Peter, the only way we can deal with it is to take the first motion first.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Okay, fair enough.

The Chair: If that is defeated, we'll have a go for a new motion.

Mr. John Cummins: In fact, I should withdraw that, because my understanding of the rules is that it just continues unless it's changed. There would have to be a notice of motion, anyway.

The Chair: Just to back up a little, John, could we have your motion again, so that we're clear?

Mr. John Cummins: I was just moving that we continue the protocols we followed in the last committee, and I was mistaken, in that we don't have to do that, it just follows naturally. So if someone wanted to change it, they would have to provide a notice of motion.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Okay, Mr. Chair, on the advice of the new vice-chair, then, I would like to make a notice of motion; in 48 hours the committee will have in writing and translation the order I've just cited. So we can have a vote on that at the next full committee.

The Chair: That will be the Tuesday after next, the first Tuesday back.

What else is on the agenda?

The Clerk: You have a vice-chair, and Mr. Steckle is the Liberals' vice-chair. So at this time, if it's the pleasure of the committee, they can continue to consider the report.

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The Chair: I think there are some concerns. I know we sent out a notice about discussing the Oceans Act. I think there were concerns from the Alliance as to whether we'd be able to do that today. We can postpone it to the next meeting, if that's okay.

Mr. John Cummins: But I understood this was cancelled.

The Chair: Technically, I know, the purpose of this meeting is supposed to be just an organizational one.

Mr. Dominic LeBlanc (Beauséjour—Petitcodiac, Lib.): Mr. Chairman, when is the next meeting?

The Chair: The next meeting will be tomorrow morning.

Mr. Dominic LeBlanc: Thank you.

The Chair: We're dealing with the Atlantic fisheries policy review and the access issue. In fact, that's why I'm late. I was just doing an interview with Arthur Kroeger and David Stewart Patterson on economic development, in which Patterson was attacking economic development policies in Cape Breton, so I couldn't leave.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Is he the guy on CTV?

The Chair: He's the guy who wrote the book along with Thomas d'Aquino.

Mr. Peter Stoffer: Oh wow, out the door with that.

Mr. Andy Burton: Were you suggesting, Mr. Chairman, there be a meeting tomorrow morning to deal with this?

The Chair: No, there's a meeting tomorrow morning that has been scheduled for some time to deal with the Atlantic fisheries review.

All right, thank you for your support—I should have been here.

The meeting is adjourned.