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House Hansard - 256

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
November 27, 2023 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 256 - Nov/27/23
Mr. Mark Gerretsen (Kingston and the Islands, Lib.)
  • Nov/27/23 7:06:47 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak to a concurrence motion. For those who are just tuning in, to understand the context of what we are doing right now, back on November 3, the government had on the Order Paper that we would continue to debate the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement. However, as was becoming very consistent around that time, every time we brought forward that particular bill to be debated, Conservatives would put forward concurrence motions to basically prevent us from discussing the bill. The reason I am willing to go out on a limb to say that they were intentionally preventing us from debating that bill is not only that they had done it a number of times already, but also, and more importantly, that they were continually doing it with reports from committees that were unanimous. This was another unanimous report that came from committee. Just so the public knows, when a report is tabled in the House by the chair of the committee, there is no obligation to debate it as it is considered received. As a matter of fact, the government responded to this particular report from the committee, so there was really no need to have a debate on it. The committee report was unanimous. The government, in its introductory reply, thanked the committee, said that the majority of the committee's recommendations were in line with work already being undertaken by the government, and went on to address each and every specific recommendation in the report. On Friday, November 3, Conservatives put forward a motion to concur in this unanimous report from the committee, which had already been responded to by the government. It was just to delay and prevent us from talking about the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement. Of course, at the time, none of us really understood why. We could not fathom that Conservatives would be against that piece of legislation, which was the result of a trade agreement that had been signed by President Zelenskyy and the Prime Minister. It also has the endorsement of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and had all of the important elements built within it to help Ukraine rebuild. This side of the House, and probably all parties but the Conservative Party, were under the impression that it was going to be a pretty easy debate. We thought that everybody would agree and then we would pass it. However, very early on in the debate process, the member for Cumberland—Colchester rose and referred to the Canada-Ukraine free trade agreement as being woke. That was the first sign for us on this side of the House. At that point, we started asking what was going on and if it were possible that the Conservative Party of Canada does not support this very important piece of legislation.
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Context: House Hansard - 256 - Nov/27/23
The Assistant Deputy Speaker (Mrs. Carol Hughes)
  • Nov/27/23 7:15:37 p.m.
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Again, I want to remind members. I am listening very closely, because certainly I am very well aware of the points of order that were raised today and I want to make sure members are being very respectful in the House. I do not think we do any favour to our allies and to the parliamentarians of this House if we are not careful with the wording we use. I want to remind members again there is some leeway during the speeches but that the speeches need to be focused on the concurrence motion. The concurrence motion should be mentioned on a regular basis, or the content of it should be. I will turn it back to the hon. government deputy House leader. Again, make sure we stay on track.
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