Michael Barrett moved, — That the Committee: (a) report the following recommendations to the House at the first opportunity:

(i) that the Conflict of Interest Act, including the conflict of interest rules, disclosure mechanisms and compliance measures set out in it, be reviewed;

(ii) that the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics be designated to undertake the review;

(iii) that it be an instruction to the Committee to consider, as part of its review, whether the Act should be amended or expanded with a view to enhancing transparency, preventing conflicts of interest, avoiding potential or apparent conflicts of interest, regulating public office holders’ ownership of assets in tax havens, limiting the availability of blind trusts as a compliance measure, extending the Act’s provisions to political party leaders and leadership candidates, and increasing penalties for non-compliance; and

(iv) that, at the conclusion of the review, the Committee report its findings and recommendations to the House; and

(b) in the time between when these recommendations are reported to the House and the House dispenses with them, begin hearing witness testimony on the subject matter referenced in recommendation (i) and (iii), and the parties be directed to provide the names of their proposed witnesses to the Clerk of the Committee within two weeks of the adoption of this motion.

Debate arose thereon.

At 4:38 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 4:43 p.m., the meeting resumed.

The Chair ruled the proposed amendment inadmissible.

At 5:12 p.m., the meeting was suspended.

At 5:32 p.m., the meeting resumed.

After debate, the question was put on the motion.

A point of order was raised as to the timing of the putting of the question.

RULING BY THE CHAIR

The Chair ruled that there were no more members wishing to speak when the question was put.

Whereupon, Gurbux Saini appealed the decision of the Chair.

The question: "Shall the decision of the Chair be sustained?" was put by recorded division and the result of the vote was announced:

YEAS: Michael Barrett, Michael Cooper, Gabriel Hardy, Luc Thériault — 4;

NAYS: Leslie Church, Linda Lapointe, Gurbux Saini, Abdelhaq Sari — 4.

Accordingly, the Chair's decision was sustained as the question was not negatived.

The question was put on the motion and it was agreed to on the following recorded division:

YEAS: Leslie Church, Michael Cooper, Gabriel Hardy, Linda Lapointe, Shuvaloy Majumdar, Abdelhaq Sari, Luc Thériault — 7;

NAYS: Gurbux Saini — 1.

ORDERED, — That the Chair present the report to the House.

Linda Lapointe moved, — That the committee undertake a comprehensive study of the Lobbying Act to assess its effectiveness in ensuring transparency and ethical conduct in lobbying activities; that witnesses include the Commissioner of Lobbying, representatives from civil society, former public office holders, and ethics experts; that the committee report its findings and propose legislative or regulatory reforms to the House; and that pursuant to Standing Order 109 the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

After debate, the question was put on the motion and it was agreed to.

Luc Thériault moved, — That, pursuant to Standing Order 108(3)(h), the committee undertake a study to assess artificial intelligence (AI), the challenges it poses, and how it should be regulated; to this end, that the committee hold a minimum of four (4) meetings; that at the first meeting, the committee invite the Canadian Minister of AI, to appear before it; that the committee report its findings and recommendations to the House; and that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government provide a comprehensive response to the report.

Debate arose thereon.

After debate, the question was put on the motion and it was agreed to.