committee currently has no chair and has not met since March 6. Jay Hill, Conservative party whip, said he is adamant that unless the opposition is willing to meet to re-elect Goodyear as the chair and to withdraw the motion to study the In and Out scandal, there will be no Procedure and House Affairs committee meetings. The Speaker of the House made a ruling on the events in this committee and others which stated rulings by committee chairs are being routinely overturned by majority votes, even when the rulings are procedurally sound. Such a state of affairs has led to "general lawlessness" at committees. Goodyear also chairs Subcommittee on Agenda and Procedure He was also named Chairman of the all-party Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group. A former campaign manager for Goodyear admits he negotiated a lease for a campaign headquarters in 2004 that said the landlord would make a political donation to Goodyear's election bid. In a compliance agreement with the Commissioner of Canada Elections, Reg Petersen "acknowledged an act that constitutes an offence" under the Elections Act. The Conservative Party's spokesperson, Ryan Sparrow, responded that the error was a mistake made by a first-time campaign manager and noted that "Elections Canada has acknowledged that [Peterson] made a mistake and no further action has been taken." Role in cabinet Following the Conservative victory in the 2008 federal election, Goodyear was appointed to the cabinet portfolio of Minister of State for Science and Technology. Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) In 2009 named Minister of State responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) created by the federal government through Budget 2009 to "support Ontario’s then floundering economy." FedDev Ontario had a $1-billion budget for 2009–2014. Among other things, FedDev helped small companies develop new products faster, similar to the role played by the Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP). In May 2012 Jameson Berkow of reported in the Financial Post that halfway its mandate, "Mr. Goodyear’s Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario [...] appears to have enjoyed unbridled success in helping Canada’s most populous province save itself from economic oblivion." Minister of State for Science and Technology 2008 Under the federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, Gary Goodyear, the NRC became a "toolbox for industry" and dented basic-research infrastructure. In early 2009, Goodyear oversaw $147.9 million in funding cuts for