RNNR Committee Meeting

     Honourable members, I see a quorum.

    We can now proceed to the election of the chair.

    Mr. Regan.

    I nominate Mr. Harris.

    Are there any further nominations?

    Mr. Tonks.

    I nominate Mr. Benoit.

    Are there any further nominations?

    I can second Mr. Benoit's nomination, I guess.

    Mr. Anderson has seconded the nomination.

     Mr. Harris.

    Although I know I have many friends in this Parliament--and some among them, obviously--I just want to say that I appreciate the nomination and I'm honoured by it, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do it.

    Some hon. members: Oh, oh!

    Mr. Richard Harris: I'll have to decline the nomination. I'm sorry.

    As Mr. Harris's nomination is actually in the form of a motion, I require unanimous consent of the committee in order to withdraw. Is there unanimous consent that Mr. Harris can withdraw?

    Some hon. members: Agreed.

    It was his idea, I want you to know.

     By unanimous consent, Mr. Harris is permitted to withdraw his name and the motion is withdrawn.

    On a point of order, Madam Clerk--

    He wants to reinstate himself.

    --I was just wondering for my memoirs: does this become part of the official record?

    Yes.

    That's wonderful.

    There being no further nominations, I declare Mr. Benoit duly elected as chair of the committee.

     We now move along to the second item of business on the agenda, which is the election of the vice-chairs. I am now prepared to accept nominations or motions for the position of vice-chair.

    Mr. Bains.

    I nominate Alan Tonks for vice-chair.

    Is there a seconder?

    I'll second that.

    Are there any further nominations?

     Seeing no further nominations, I declare Mr. Tonks duly elected vice-chair, from the official opposition.

     Our next item of business is the election of another opposition vice-chair, the second vice-chair.

    Mr. Tonks.

    I nominate Mr. Nathan Cullen.

    Mr. Tonks has nominated Mr. Cullen. Are there any further nominations?

    Seeing no further nominations, I declare Mr. Cullen duly elected second vice-chair.

     Congratulations.

    I now invite your chair, Mr. Benoit, to take his place as chair of the committee.

    It was a tough campaign.

    The other thing on our agenda is the routine motions. I think you all know that in the House on March 3 there was a motion passed that related to routine motions of committees. It said:

    That is the direction that was agreed to, I believe, by the various parties. I would suggest that we deal with routine motions in that way by approving the routine motions that were in place last time, but it is of course up to this committee.

    Mr. Anderson.

     Do you want a motion to do that? How do you want to handle it?

    Yes. That's the way anything would have to be done.

    Yes, just to be sure. This needs to be appropriately worded, but I have a motion that we accept the motion of the House of Commons to adopt the routine motions in place at the time of prorogation.

    It's actually an order of the House, I believe. That's what it is.

    Do you all understand the motion?

    Mr. Cullen, and then Mr. Tonks.

    I don't know, Chair, if it's appropriate now to bring it up as we're doing routine motions, but last time as the committee commenced we discussed the notion of having a subcommittee in order to set the agenda and then bring that proposed agenda back to the committee as a whole for approval.

     I don't know if this is the moment to bring up that topic again, but I would like to. I'm under your direction in terms of whether the motion you just proposed would preclude that later on, or if this is the appropriate time to do it. I'm in your hands. But I'd like the conversation to be held so that we can decide whether we want to have a subcommittee of this committee.

    This is something the committee can talk about again. We did that before.

     This is an order of the House saying that we would adopt the same procedures as last time, the same rules as last time. It would be the time to talk about it. We have a motion on the floor saying that we adopt the rules we had in place before prorogation. That's what we're discussing before we vote on this.

    Just for the sake of procedure, then, do I need to move...? I mean, I'm obviously fine with adopting the previous rules. The reason I bring up the subcommittee is that there was some to-and-fro during the course of the last session around the agenda. I'm trying to offer up a suggestion that will alleviate those tensions.

    I think a subcommittee might do that, so do I have to move an amendment to the motion? I'm not sure of the procedure available to me, but whatever it is, I'd like to have the discussion within the committee to test the will of the government in particular. I'm not sure what the will is of my colleagues in opposition, but I sincerely feel that it's a procedure that would allow us a little bit more expediency in setting out the agenda and a little bit better communication among all the parties.

    We certainly can discuss this when we have our meeting on future business of the committee. There's nothing that precludes that. It can happen at any time. It's up to the committee.

    Can I simply test the will of my colleagues, then, Chair, to know if the discussion is there?

    We've had several discussions on that, as you know.

    I know, but I guess what I'm questioning is whether things have changed. That was a number of months ago. If people have changed their opinions, I'd like to know. I haven't had any conversations with David and only very cursory ones with my colleagues from the Liberals and the Bloc.

    Mr. Cullen, for that reason, could I suggest that you talk to some others on the committee about it and bring it back when we discuss future business at the committee? Would you like to do that?

    Sure. I'll work on it between now and then.

    Is there further discussion on this motion?

    Mr. Tonks.

    In the routine motions that are part of the excellent document that was sent out, there was one with perhaps a contradiction in terms, on “working meals”. I'm not interested in the working meals part, but the motion that deals with travel.

     From the last meeting, I think we had a discussion in linking whatever our agenda would be to travel for the committee, to try to get a handle on that in advance, whether we went up to Chalk River or over to Fort McMurray or wherever. Pursuant to what has been raised on the steering committee, when we are going to be discussing our agenda I wonder if we could just make sure that we look at our travel schedule, along with that agenda development. We left that out last term.

    It logically fits in, Mr. Tonks. I agree. When we're talking about future business of the committee, I think that fits in. That's part of what we discuss.

    Okay.

    I understand what you're saying. It's perfect sense.

    I'm sorry to be dwelling just on meals and travel, but....

    At morning meetings, there probably won't be too many meals.

    So all of the routine motions are from what's here?

    Yes.

    Okay.

     Any further discussion on Mr. Anderson's motion?

    (Motion agreed to) [See Minutes of Proceedings]

    The Chair: I think it was unanimous.

    That's great. That's the business for the meeting today.

    If we come back next Tuesday to discuss future business of the committee, would that make sense?

    An hon. member: Yes.

    The Chair: We'll leave it at that, then.

    Thank you all very much.

    Oh, Mr. Harris has a point of order.

    Mr. Chair, I just wanted to point out that when I was on the committee before, we did quite a study on the forest industry. In the meantime, some time ago, knowing that we have a huge presence in China in construction, I received a number of very nice photos. I have them electronically, if anybody wants them. The photos are of house and apartment construction in China primarily using wood from West Fraser, Canfor, and Tolko out in B.C. If anybody wants these, let me know and I can supply them.

    It's a great thing. As you know, we're even going to double our shipments to China this year.

    Thank you, Mr. Harris. It sounds like it should have been a paid ad, not a point of order. But that's just fine.

    Wood is good.

    It's good for you, Richard.

    Thank you, everyone. Have a great weekend. We'll see you Tuesday.

    The meeting is adjourned.