The clock is ticking, and the Conservatives are using that clock
By Denis Carmel
OTTAWA – This morning, we had written that we anticipated today’s meeting of the Heritage Committee dealing with committee business would bring some resolution on a few issues regarding, amongst others, a deadline for presenting amendments to the bill.
The meeting held this evening, started late as usual because of votes in the House of Commons. Some of those votes, in normal times, would not have to be held, but the Conservatives are using rules to push the government into a corner.
We are not suggesting the votes held in the House were tactics to stall Bill C-11 specifically, but the government is, nonetheless in a difficult place – not because it is in a minority situation, but because the opposition is able to use parliamentary rules to delay government’s plans. Business as usual.
So, when the Heritage Committee meeting started, late as usual, the witnesses were heard and then the committee was able to begin discussing committee business, at which point time was running out.
A motion was again filed by the NDP to have a deadline for introducing amendments to the bill, set at Friday, 3 June, at 4 p.m. EDT. Mention of the possibility of introducing amendments during the clause-by-clause phase on a unanimous basis was discussed but not resolved, which is probably a moot point, since we believe a time allocation motion will be imposed on the process.
In any case, the meeting was adjourned at 7:30 p.m. as they lost access to the room, without a decision on this issue or any other one.
The chair of the committee said that a committee business meeting will be held tomorrow to deal with this issue.
Cartt.ca still believes the bill will get out of the committee before the end of the session but final adoption, in that point, is highly problematic.
The committee is set to resume tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., to hear Canadian Independent Music Association, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, ICI Television and Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.
Expect that meeting to be delayed by votes…
And we are betting/hoping that the committee chair will be in Ottawa to conduct future meetings.
It is, after all, a full-time job.
