[Recorded by Electronic Apparatus]
Thursday, September 19, 1996
.0926 
[English]
The Chairman: Good morning. I trust everybody has had a wonderful summer and cooperation will prevail.
Today the committee's mandate is to receive the striking committee report.
Mr. Whip.
Mr. Boudria (Glengarry - Prescott - Russell): Before we move to the striking committee report - and of course that part will have to be in camera, because it's a report - last night there were negotiations among the three parties and we agreed to do a number of things both in the House and in this committee. For the House part actually to happen, though, the report, which we'll be discussing right after we finish with this item, must be in the House at 10 a.m. or else everything becomes academic.
Anyway, what we had agreed to was that this committee would undertake a study of private members' ballot ``bills''. Later on we widened that to include ballot ``items''. So private members' motions would be included. This study would last no longer than 45 days, and what we would study is the possibility, at least, of making all or at least more of those private members' items votable. We recognized, of course, that if you make more of them votable you lengthen the debate and therefore you reduce the number of private members' items. There are all these considerations on which we could get witnesses, and probably the clerk, to assist us.
There is also the issue of the private members' bills that exist now. Once they go to committee, it has happened on a few occasions that committees have recommended that the bills not proceed further. We want to study that issue as well.
Therefore I move that the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs undertake a study of private members' ballot items to determine the possibility of allowing all or more of such items to become votable and to study the disposition of private members' bills at the committee stage, and that the committee report its findings to the House no later than 45 days from the passage of this order.
The Chairman: You've all heard the question. Mr. Milliken, you're on my list here.
Mr. Milliken (Kingston and the Islands): If this motion is for the committee, that's fine. I'll agree to it. I was just going to suggest that we adopt the report and go to the House, and then further discussions can take place if necessary, because the motion could not be put to the House today without consent in any event. So that can be worked out after. If it's just to get it out of this committee, we could adopt the striking committee report and get it out of here. But I'm quite prepared to agree to this motion on the way by, if that solves the problem.
[Translation]
Mr. Langlois (Bellechasse): Mr. Boudria, do you wish that we study the matter here or that we refer it to the Sub-Committee on Private Members' Business?
Mr. Boudria: The Sub-committee dealing with private members' issues is accountable to our Committee. If we want that sub-committee to study the matter, it's up to us to decide. It is nevertheless a fact that any issue dealing with private members' bills falls under the scope of our committee.
Mr. Langlois: I was not questioning that at all. You had the intention to appoint a sub-committee or another -
.0930
Mr. Boudria: You did not mention that to me. Personnally, I don't mind whether it is the committee or a sub-committee that do the job. I haven't even thought about it. I don't know if it makes any difference to the other members.
[English]
Mr. Strahl (Fraser Valley East): I don't think so.
[Translation]
Mr. Boudria: Anyway, I -
[English]
Mr. Strahl: I don't know what other pressing business we have here. This is something that's always been important to us and I'm not sure what else is on the agenda. So I don't think it matters whether it's a subcommittee or a full committee to deal with that.
The Chairman: As your chair, the only observation I would make is that the motion as I heard it has a 45-day time thing ticking along in it. That would pre-empt other government business or other issues members may wish to put. We haven't had a shopping list prepared. As you know, last year we got pretty jammed with the Jacob matter and many members have raised a variety of issues. But I'm open. I'm just raising that as your chair.
Mr. Speaker (Lethbridge): Mr. Chairman, I wonder if he'd be open to an amendment to the motion as put if we said the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs appoints ``a subcommittee to undertake''. I think then we could get more work done on the issue, better focused. It's a little difficult to do that in the full committee. Then we won't affect the agenda here.
The Chairman: Or ``committee or subcommittee''. In other words, give us some flexibility.
Mr. Speaker: As chairman, you would be responsible to see that's appointed.
The Chairman: I don't have a problem with that.
Mr. Frazer (Saanich - Gulf Islands): Am I correct in assuming ``45 days'' is 45 sitting days?
The Chairman: No, calendar days - and that's the question.
Mr. Speaker: On the order paper, M-267, one of our members'...that the Standing Orders of the House be amended by adding the following.... That's part of the private member's ballot. In the study - I just wanted to make note of this - whether it's a subcommittee or a committee we strike, we would appreciate it if motion 267 were referenced to that committee and studied at that time.
The Chairman: I'm not prejudging, but I would presume, colleagues, that would be a matter the subcommittee would want to look at in any event.
Mr. Speaker: Right. I just make note of it for our member -
The Chairman: It's on the record. Fine. The subcommittee would obviously want to consider that and a number of other issues, perhaps what other provinces are doing, and maybe even other jurisdictions such as Britain and Australia, on the subject of balloting.
Mr. Strahl: I think we should go travelling down there.
An hon. member: I think so too.
The Chairman: Australia beckons.
Motion agreed to
The Chairman: The order of the day then is that we're going to move in camera.
[Proceedings continue in camera]