Notices of Meeting include information about the subject matter to be examined by the committee and date, time and place of the meeting, as well as a list of any witnesses scheduled to appear. The Evidence is the edited and revised transcript of what is said before a committee. The Minutes of Proceedings are the official record of the business conducted by the committee at a sitting.
I must inform members that the clerk of the committee can only receive motions for the election of the chair. The clerk cannot receive other types of motions, cannot entertain points of order, nor participate in debate.
We can now proceed to the election of the chair. Pursuant to Standing Order 106(2), the chair must be a member of the government party.
Good morning everyone. Thank you for your confidence in me. I look forward to working with all of you and I think we can accomplish a lot of things. As I look around the table, there are many familiar faces who have been on this committee for a number of years, so I'm sure we will continue to accomplish good things.
As Thursday is a Friday schedule, we will not have a meeting this Thursday and will have our next meeting next Tuesday morning at 8:45.
If you are done, I would just like take this opportunity, since there is no meeting on Thursday, to move a motion right now as well. Okay?
I'd like to move the following motion:
[Translation]
That in the Standing Committee of Canadian Heritage, the Chair may receive a motion to move in camera only for the purpose of discussing:
(a) wages, salaries and other employee benefits;
(b) contracts and contract negotiations;
(c) labour relations and personnel matters;
(d) a draft agenda or draft report; and
(e) documents or matters requiring confidentiality, such as national security.
And that furthermore, that all votes taken in camera be recorded in the minutes, including which member voted which way when recorded votes are requested.
[English]
I'll just say this about the motion. I think both the government and the opposition parties have been at odds since the beginning of this Parliament, the election of May 2011, with questions of in camera meetings, and I feel it's a great opportunity to come to a consensus on them. We do recognize that there are times where it's appropriate to be in camera and I think this way we would set out clear guidelines going forward and hopefully make our committees more productive.
[Translation]
It is that simple. It is quite simple and I think that Canadians will appreciate this. We recognize the fact that it is sometimes important to sit in camera, but we must have provisions that state that most of our work be done in public.
I submit all of this to you, Mr. Chair, in all humility.
Thank you very much, Mr. Dubé. At the next meeting on this next Tuesday, we will deal with routine motions and all of the business of the committee. I think we should put that off until next Tuesday.
Mr. Chair, why don't we work right now? We spent the summer not working. Well, I worked but not in the House. Now we have an opportunity to get through to Canadians that we are serious and want to work hard right away. You told us that we won't be working on Thursday, so why don't we spend today going ahead with what you want to do next Tuesday?