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Monday, November 25, 2013 (No. 23)

Orders of the Day

Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne

October 16, 2013 — Consideration of the motion for an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne, — That the following Address be presented to His Excellency the Governor General:

To His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada, Chancellor and Commander of the Order of Military Merit, Governor General and Commander-in-Chief of Canada.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY:

We, Her Majesty's most loyal and dutiful subjects, the House of Commons of Canada, in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble thanks to Your Excellency for the gracious Speech which Your Excellency has addressed to both Houses of Parliament.

Government Orders

Business of Supply

October 16, 2013 — The President of the Treasury Board — Consideration of the Business of Supply.

Supply period ending December 10, 2013 — maximum of 5 allotted days, pursuant to Standing Order 81(10)(b).

Tuesday, November 26, 2013 — 4th allotted day.

Opposition Motions

October 22, 2013 — — That the Board of Internal Economy begin posting the travel and hospitality expenses of Members, on a quarterly basis, to the Parliament of Canada website in a manner similar to the guidelines used by the government for proactive disclosure of ministerial expenses.

October 22, 2013 — — That the Board of Internal Economy begin posting individual Member's Expenditure Reports, on a quarterly basis, to the Parliament of Canada website in a format more accessible to the public.

October 22, 2013 — — That the House call on the Auditor General to undertake performance audits of the House of Commons administration every three years.

October 22, 2013 — — That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be directed to develop guidelines under which the Auditor General is asked to perform more detailed audits of parliamentary spending and report these guidelines to the House no later than March 31, 2014.

October 31, 2013 — — That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to propose amendments to the Standing Orders that would provide Members with a mechanism to address Members’ dissatisfaction with government responses to written questions, in a manner similar to the adjournment proceedings process for oral questions; and that the Committee report these proposed amendments to the House no later than March 7, 2014.

October 31, 2013 — — That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to recommend changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions governing Oral Questions, and to consider, among other things, (i) elevating decorum and fortifying the use of discipline by the Speaker, to strengthen the dignity and authority of the House, (ii) lengthening the amount of time given for each question and each answer, (iii) examining the convention that the Minister questioned need not respond, (iv) allocating half the questions each day for Members, whose names and order of recognition would be randomly selected, (v) dedicating Wednesday exclusively for questions to the Prime Minister, (vi) dedicating Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for questions to Ministers other than the Prime Minister in a way that would require Ministers be present two of the four days to answer questions concerning their portfolio, based on a published schedule that would rotate and that would ensure an equitable distribution of Ministers across the four days; and that the Committee report its findings to the House, with proposed changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions, within six months of the adoption of this order.

November 5, 2013 — — That, in the opinion of this House, the government should honour the service of Canadian military and RCMP veterans and their families by: (a) reversing the decision to close down the Veterans Affairs offices in Corner Brook, Charlottetown, Sydney, Windsor, Thunder Bay, Brandon, Saskatoon, Kelowna, and Prince George; (b) recognizing that the government has a legal, moral, social and fiduciary duty towards the men and women that the government put in harm’s way; (c) immediately implementing the recommendations put forward by the Veterans Affairs ombudsman on the New Veterans Charter; and (d) respecting the mandate of the stakeholder meeting to provide meaningful consultations with Canadian veterans.

November 5, 2013 — — That an Order of the House do issue for a copy of the following documents in the possession of the Government of Canada: (a) e-mail messages sent or received from Nigel Wright, from December 3, 2012 to May 20, 2013; (b) e-mail messages received from Nigel Wright, or his attorneys, by the government since May 20, 2013; (c) e-mail messages sent or received by Chris Woodcock, Benjamin Perrin, David van Hemmen, Jenni Byrne, Ray Novak, and Patrick Rogers from December 3, 2012 to the present; (d) e-mail messages from within the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) where Senate expenses or Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin or Patrick Brazeau are mentioned not contained in (c) above for the same time period; (e) records of communication between Senator David Tkachuk and the PMO from December 3, 2012 to the present; (f) minutes of any meetings at the PMO where Senate expenses or Senators Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin or Patrick Brazeau were mentioned from December 3, 2012 to the present; and (g) cheques received by the government from Senator Mike Duffy or his attorneys related to expenses in the last two years.

November 19, 2013 — — That, in light of the Federal Court of Canada finding on May 23, 2013 by Justice Richard Mosley that the Conservative CIMS database was the likely source of election fraud in ridings across the country in the 2011 general election, the House call on Elections Canada to fully enforce the Canada Elections Act for the current by-elections in Provencher, Brandon—Souris, Toronto Centre, and Bourassa, paying close attention to any reports of similar fraudulent activity, and to report to the House within ninety calendar days any complaints or evidence that it has received of such fraudulent activity taking place.

November 19, 2013 — — That the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs be instructed to recommend changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions governing Oral Questions, and to consider, among other things, (i) elevating decorum and fortifying the use of discipline by the Speaker, to strengthen the dignity and authority of the House, (ii) lengthening the amount of time given for each question and each answer, (iii) examining the convention that the Minister questioned need not respond, (iv) allocating half the questions each day for Members, whose names and order of recognition would be randomly selected, (v) dedicating Wednesday exclusively for questions to the Prime Minister, (vi) dedicating Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for questions to Ministers other than the Prime Minister in a way that would require Ministers be present two of the four days to answer questions concerning their portfolio, based on a published schedule that would rotate and that would ensure an equitable distribution of Ministers across the four days; and that the Committee report its findings to the House, with proposed changes to the Standing Orders and other conventions, within six months of the adoption of this order.

November 22, 2013 — — That, given the recent sworn statements by RCMP Corporal Greg Horton, which revealed that: (i) on February 21, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Office had agreed that, with regard to Mike Duffy’s controversial expenses, the Conservative Party of Canada would “keep him whole on the repayment”; (ii) on February 22, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff wanted to “speak to the PM before everything is considered final”; (iii) later on February 22, 2013, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff confirmed “We are good to go from the PM once Ben has his confirmation from Payne”; (iv) an agreement was reached between Benjamin Perrin and Janice Payne, counsels for the Prime Minister and Mike Duffy; (v) the amount to keep Mike Duffy whole was calculated to be higher than first determined, requiring a changed source of funds from Conservative Party funds to Nigel Wright’s personal funds, after which the arrangement proceeded and Duffy’s expenses were re-paid; and (vi) subsequently, the Prime Minister's Office engaged in the obstruction of a Deloitte audit and a whitewash of a Senate report;the House condemn the deeply disappointing actions of the Prime Minister's Office in devising, organizing and participating in an arrangement that the RCMP believes violated sections 119, 121 and 122 of the Criminal Code of Canada, and remind the Prime Minister of his own Guide for Ministers and Ministers of State, which states on page 28 that “Ministers and Ministers of State are personally responsible for the conduct and operation of their offices and the exempt staff in their employ,” and the House call upon the Prime Minister to explain in detail to Canadians, under oath, what Nigel Wright or any other member of his staff or any other Conservative told him at any time about any aspect of any possible arrangement pertaining to Mike Duffy, what he did about it, and when.

Ways and Means

No. 3 — November 22, 2013 — — Consideration of a Ways and Means motion to amend the Customs Tariff. — Sessional Paper No. 8570-412-3, tabled on Friday, November 22, 2013.

Government Bills (Commons)

C-2 — November 21, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That Bill C-2, An Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

Deferred recorded division on the amendment of , seconded by , — That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the word “That” and substituting the following:

“this house decline to give second reading to Bill C-2, an Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, because it:

(a) fails to reflect the dual purposes of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) to maintain and promote both public health and public safety;

(b) runs counter to the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in Canada v. PHS Community Services Society, which states that a Minister should generally grant an exemption when there is proof that a supervised injection site will decrease the risk of death and disease, and when there is little or no evidence that it will have a negative impact on public safety;

(c) establishes onerous requirements for applicants that will create unjustified barriers for the establishment of safe injection sites, which are proven to save lives and increase health outcomes; and

(d) further advances the Minister's political tactics to divide communities and use the issue of supervised injection sites for political gain, in place of respecting the advice and opinion of public health experts.”.

Recorded division on the amendment — deferred until Tuesday, November 26, 2013, at the expiry of the time provided for Government Orders, pursuant to Standing Order 45.

C-3^R — November 21, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That Bill C-3, An Act to enact the Aviation Industry Indemnity Act, to amend the Aeronautics Act, the Canada Marine Act, the Marine Liability Act and the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 and to make consequential amendments to other Acts, be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Transport, Infrastructure and Communities.

C-5^R — November 19, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That Bill C-5, An Act to amend the Canada-Newfoundland Atlantic Accord Implementation Act, the Canada-Nova Scotia Offshore Petroleum Resources Accord Implementation Act and other Acts and to provide for certain other measures, be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Natural Resources.

C-11 — November 20, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That Bill C-11, An Act to amend the Public Service Employment Act (priority hiring for injured veterans), be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Veterans Affairs.

C-12 — November 22, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That Bill C-12, An Act to amend the Corrections and Conditional Release Act, be now read a second time and referred to the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security.

C-13 — November 20, 2013 — — Second reading and reference to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights of Bill C-13, An Act to amend the Criminal Code, the Canada Evidence Act, the Competition Act and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act.

Government Bills (Senate)

Government Business

No. 3 — October 17, 2013 — Resuming consideration of the motion of , seconded by , — That this House take note of the Canadian economy, and

(a) recognize that Canadians' top priority remains economic growth and job creation; and

(b) commend the government's economic record which includes the creation of more than one million net new jobs since July 2009, a banking system recognized as the safest and soundest in the world for the past six years, and the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio among G7 countries;

And of the amendment of , seconded by , — That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after “job creation; and” and substituting the following:

“(b) condemn the Conservatives' economic record, which has resulted in over 1.3 million unemployed Canadians, drastic cuts to Employment Insurance, growing inequality and the dowloading of billions of dollars of costs to individuals and other levels of government; and

(c) call on the government to introduce a real plan to create high-quality jobs and combat stagnating wages, provide tax incentives targeted to hire young Canadians, improve retirement security through increased Canada Pension Plan/Quebec Pension Plan benefits, and reduce credit card fees charged to small businesses and Canadian families.”.


^R Recommended by the Governor General

House Publications

Orders of the Day

Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne

Government Orders

Business of Supply

Ways and Means

Government Bills (Commons)

Government Bills (Senate)

Government Business