The House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development met this afternoon for the first time this Parliamentary session. Last session, this committee was the scene of more than a few partisan brushfires. It seems we may be in for more of the same this session.
At this meeting, just like the first meeting of any Commons committee, the first order of business is to elect chair. That would be Bob Mills, Conservative from Red Deer. He was chair in the last session. The first vice-chair is Geoff Regan, Liberal from Halifax West. The second vice-chair is Bernard Bigras, BQ from Rosmont-La Petite Patrie. They, too, are reprising roles from last session.
Those appointments happened very quickly.
And then the committee considered the following motion (or something like this – I’m closely paraphrasing here): That a Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure be struck and that its members include the Chair, the two Vice-Chairs and a member from the other party.
The member from “other party” would be the NDP’s Nathan Cullen. This committee’s job is to meet in camera and decide on what topics will be discussed and settle on the witness list.
But this year, the Conservative government is keen to have a little more input on these agenda subcommittees and so today they tried to add one more Conservative member — preferably, Mark Warawa, the Parliamentary Secretary to Environment Minister John Baird — to that committee.
This sparked an occasionally nasty debate — Liberal David McGuinty, at one point, called Conservative Maurice Vellacott names at one point and then got a nasty comment in return from Conservative Jeff Watson — that took just over an hour to resolve.
The Conservatives thought they had the considerably power of The House of Commons Rules Procedure and Practice manual — normally referred to by its authors’ last names, Marleau and Montpetit — on their side. Marleau and Montpetit wrote:
Where committees have agreed to establish sub-committees on agenda and procedure (steering committees), their memberships have varied considerably to suit the needs of individual committees. This sub-committee typically consists of the Chair of the committee, the Vice-Chairs, representatives of each of the other recognized parties and, on committees having a departmental responsibility, the Parliamentary Secretary.
But the Liberals, Bloc and NDP were united in their opposition to the Parliamentary Secretary to being on their steeting committee. They argue that committees should be masters of their own destiny and should be free of interference from the government of the day. (Even Stephen Harper said something to this effect when he was in Opposition).
So Warawa went through several amendments to the main motion: That he should be on the committee; that Conservative Luc Harvey, then Watson, then Vellacott should be on the committee. All of these motions were defeated as the Conservatives have only four votes compared to the Liberals four, the two from the Bloc and the single NDP vote.
Warawa, it was clear, was getting increasingly frustrated. “It is absurd that the Government of Canada would have zero voice on the subcommittee!”
But as even Mills, the Conservative chair, pointed out, the subcommittee’s work is subject to ratification by the full committee where Warawa and others would have a chance to be heard.
Warawa then suggested that Mills could not be an advocate for the Conservative view on the subcommittee because, as chair of the subcommittee, he would have to remain impartial. Well, maybe in theory, but not in practice, as Mills and the Liberals noted.
“I am going to present my views as I always have,” said Mills, to which Liberal John Godfrey replied in echo: “You always have!”
Warawa was unconvinced. “This will take us down a path of chaos!”
At this point — about 45 minutes into a meeting of a committee ostensibly struck to figure out how to prevent the earth from baking in its own greenhouse gases — Regan accused Warawa of simply trying to impress the PMO with his stalling tactics. “I would say, Mr. Warawa, you are wasting the committee’s time.”
And so, despite the best efforts of Conservative staffers to find some procedural loophole through whch they could carry on the fight, the vote on that main motion was held and, sure enough, the steeting Committee will be Mills, Regan, Bigras and Cullen — just as originally intended.
Next motion: That, when the Committee must meet over the lunch or dinner hour, a meal be provided to Committee members. Passed. Unanimously.