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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 39

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 2, 2022 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 39 - Mar/2/22
The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 3:17:27 p.m.
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It being 3:18 p.m., pursuant to an order made on Thursday, November 25, 2021, the House will now proceed to the taking of the deferred recorded division on the opposition motion regarding the business of supply. Call in the members.
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The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 3:32:12 p.m.
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I declare the motion carried. I wish to inform the House that because of the deferred recorded division, Government Orders will be extended by 14 minutes.
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Hon. Mary Ng (Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development, Lib.)
  • Mar/2/22 3:33:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, pursuant to Standing Order 32(2), and in accordance with the transparency requirements set out in the policy on tabling of treaties in Parliament, I am pleased to present to the House of Commons the Government of Canada's negotiating objectives for negotiations toward a free trade agreement between Canada and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The Government of Canada intends to commence negotiations by holding a first round of negotiations with ASEAN as soon as practicable, but in accordance with the policy, the first round will take place no earlier than 30 days from today. While I am on my feet, I move: That the House do now proceed to orders of the day.
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The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 3:33:55 p.m.
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If a member of a recognized party present in the House wishes to request a recorded division or that the motion be adopted on division, I would invite them to rise and indicate it to the Chair. The hon. opposition House leader.
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Mr. John Brassard
  • Mar/2/22 3:34:29 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, we would like a recorded division.
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The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 3:34:35 p.m.
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Call in the members.
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The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 4:18:21 p.m.
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I declare the motion carried.
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Hon. Mark Holland (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.)
  • Mar/2/22 4:18:39 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, in relation to the consideration of Government Business No. 9, I move: That the debate be not further adjourned.
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The Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 4:19:10 p.m.
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Pursuant to Standing Order 67.1, there will now be a 30-minute question period. I invite hon. members who wish to ask questions to rise in their places or use the “raise hand” function so that the Chair has some idea of the number of members who wish to participate in this question period.
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Mr. John Brassard (Barrie—Innisfil, CPC)
  • Mar/2/22 4:20:07 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, 41 years ago in October, Ronald Reagan famously turned to then-president Jimmy Carter and said, “There you go again.” Well, here we go again. On the 39th sitting day of this Parliament, this is the fifth time the government has invoked closure on debate, on something as important as an oversight committee. The government decided to take extraordinary powers by invoking the Emergencies Act. The least they should expect is extraordinary scrutiny and oversight. Conservatives proposed a purpose-built committee to look after the legislative mandate of what the committee was required to do, and yet the government has turned this into a fiasco. What they are proposing in this motion is absurd. We came back with an amendment, and yet still the hammer falls. Canada's Conservatives will do everything we can to get to the bottom of this, including the purpose for the invocation of this act, what led up to it and why the government decided to do it. Why is the government covering this up? Why does the government not want to get to the bottom of this by having a committee that is structured similarly to other oversight committees in Parliament?
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Hon. Mark Holland
  • Mar/2/22 4:21:41 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was in opposition when former prime minister Harper used closure all the time, so the hon. member's indignation is a bit surprising. It was used over 100 times, so I suppose he has now had a change of heart on its use. That notwithstanding, in this particular case the hon. member knows how important it is that we move to have this oversight body put into place as quickly as can be done. The hon. member knows as well that it was his party, unfortunately, that took the position of cheerleading the illegal activities that took place outside and demonstrated no impartiality with respect to this matter. Therefore, we thought it was appropriate, not that we would chair the committee and not that the official opposition would— Some hon. members: Oh, oh! Hon. Mark Holland: They are very excited about this. It is hard to hear myself think. I am not sure why they are yelling. They are going to get an opportunity for questions. Perhaps they could wait to propose their questions.
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The Deputy Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 4:22:04 p.m.
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I will try to help the hon. member out with this one. There are 27 minutes left to ask questions and make comments. The quicker we ask questions, the quicker we get the answers, and we will get as many people in as we possibly can.
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Hon. Mark Holland
  • Mar/2/22 4:23:05 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I said, I am here for 30 minutes, so they have lots of opportunity to ask questions when they stand. One of the things I would say that I think is unique and positive about this proposal is that it does put two opposition parties in the chair, one that was for the act and one that was against the act, and it allows the Senate to appropriately choose its co-chair. The Conservatives on this committee actually have the same number of caucus members as the government. They have three caucus members and we have three caucus members. I see this as a pre-eminently fair, reasonable proposal. It is time to get on with it. In fact, this committee has to report back within seven sitting days. We do not have a lot of time to waste.
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Mr. Peter Julian (New Westminster—Burnaby, NDP)
  • Mar/2/22 4:23:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am a little surprised to see the Conservatives raising closure, having lived through the Harper government that imposed closure nearly 200 times. It is a bit rich for them to be concerned about it now. The problem is this. We have agreement from three parties in the House of Commons and we have agreement from the majority of the Senate groups. This measure should have come to the House on Monday. This oversight committee should already be at work, because this work is vitally important, but one party seems to be systematically refusing to actually put the parliamentary review committee in place. I can only speculate as to why that party is so reluctant to have parliamentary oversight. If we do not get it done this week, we would be waiting another three weeks before the House would be able to actually put this oversight committee in place. I want to ask the government House leader why he thinks Conservatives are ragging the puck and refusing to get this parliamentary review committee in place. Why are they delaying it? What are they afraid of with this parliamentary review?
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Hon. Mark Holland
  • Mar/2/22 4:25:03 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have some of the same reflections. It is confusing to hear the official opposition demand on the one hand that the process get started and on the other hand obfuscate and delay the process from starting. I would hope the hon. members across have not just adopted a position that they want and are not listening to anybody else. They got to do that when they had a majority with Stephen Harper, but they do not get to do that now. They need to listen to other parties. We have a proposal that is supported not only by two other parties in this House but also by the independent Senate group, the progressive Senate group and, we hope, by the Canada Senate group as well. We have worked on a proposal whereby we all compromise and we all got together so that we could move forward with this oversight. The Conservatives are saying they want oversight, and yet they are delaying the said oversight. It makes one wonder why they do not want to have this oversight move forward.
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Mrs. Claude DeBellefeuille (Salaberry—Suroît, BQ)
  • Mar/2/22 4:26:06 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I feel like what we are currently listening to is not a debate, but rather a squabble between two parties that are unable to reach an agreement on such an important issue. The Bloc Québécois believes that it is important that the chair of this committee be as non‑partisan as possible and that both sides be represented, that is, those who voted in favour and those who voted against. We have therefore made some proposals. We do not understand why the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and the House leader of the official opposition cannot agree on a solution. This committee, which will sit in camera, must be non‑partisan and must follow a rigorous process. What we are seeing right now is that we are falling prey to partisanship, with the complicity of the NDP, rather than focusing on the objective at hand, which is to find out what happened during these events.
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Hon. Mark Holland
  • Mar/2/22 4:27:04 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would like to tell my hon. colleague from the Bloc Québécois how great she is. I often had the opportunity to work with her when I was the whip for my party, and it was clear to me that she is very reasonable. I was hoping that the same could be said for the Conservative Party, but unfortunately not. For over a week, I tried to come to an agreement with that party, but it stuck to its guns. The Conservative Party was hoping to get two of the co-chair positions for this committee, one from the Senate and one from the House of Commons. It was proposing that it have one MP on the committee and that the government have only one seat. That was unreasonable, so it is an awkward situation. Unfortunately, a solution had to be found with all the other parties to foster the most neutral situation possible. That is why it has been proposed that one of the co-chairs come from a party that supported the emergency measures and that the other come from a party that did not. That is reasonable.
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Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons (Senate), Lib.)
  • Mar/2/22 4:28:36 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, what we have before us is a very good proposal that allows both the party that put forward the utilization of this measure, that being the government, and the party that was most drastically opposed to it to not be involved in the chairship. We have actually assigned the chairship to two other parties: the Bloc and the NDP. I am curious if the government House leader can try to provide some insight as to why he thinks Conservatives are just hell-bent on chairing the committee. What kind of power are they looking for—
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The Deputy Speaker
  • Mar/2/22 4:29:16 p.m.
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We have a point of order from the hon. member for Cypress Hills—Grasslands.
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Mr. Jeremy Patzer
  • Mar/2/22 4:29:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the member opposite was using language that is unparliamentary and should apologize.
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