Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was may.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Audrey O'Brien Clerk of the House of Commons
- Louis Bard Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
- Michel Bédard Committee Researcher
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Alexandrine Latendresse Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
So, there would be a wider angle used to cover several members.
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
That is correct, precisely. We try to avoid that, as much as possible, outside of question period. However sometimes it may be more important for the person to be in the frame, at the very least.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Alexandrine Latendresse Louis-Saint-Laurent, QC
Very well. That is what I wanted to know.
Thank you.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Joe Preston
If no one else has any more, I have some through my mother, but I'll wait till after.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Prince George—Peace River, BC
This is a dialogue. Do you have any recommendations on how the sessions could be done better? As the expert, what do you have to say?
11:55 a.m.
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
Things are going very well. In general, the overall feedback is very good. We understand the element. It's always a challenge to have members understand the rules of broadcasting, to understand that they are on camera. At the debriefing of new members of Parliament, we say this a lot: you are on camera, and you need to be.... If I have to focus on the chair and the member behind is sleeping, there's not much I can do, unless we put an electric shock on the chair. Members are very visible.
We've tried to bring in a few flexibilities. We have to adjust the quality based on industry standards. I think we've maintained the standards. All of that is going very well. The public is looking for more information. But it's something that can evolve very slowly. As to making a better program, I think you people are good customers and you do quite a good job to give us a prime show.
11:55 a.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
If I might just add, one of the things as well that would make for much better television, if I may say from my aged perspective, is if members—and I know how hard-pressed you are for time.... In interventions where members don't read a text, I think it's much livelier. People who are watching feel much more engaged. That, automatically, is something that I think makes for way better television. It's certainly a difficult thing to ask of members who are supposed to be covering so many different things, but I'll just slide that in.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Prince George—Peace River, BC
I have a question on budget and compensation. You talked about the broadcasters liking your coverage and footage. I would like to know what the budget was for the broadcast department and whether that was in any way compensated by the networks. Is it a cost recovery type of thing, or how does that work?
Noon
Chief Information Officer, House of Commons
No, my first comment is that we have to realize that the CPAC agreement is the best one in the world. It costs Parliament zero dollars. It's a consortium of cable companies that pays for that. If tomorrow CPAC were to shut down its services and I had to put something else in place, we're talking about $10 million per year to offer the same service.
In terms of the broadcasters that have access to Parliament Hill, we have agreements because we provide all the connectivity to make sure we provide quality content. For that they've paid for the investment. But there's no cost recovery for Parliament. In terms of what we do here, it's salary for our team, maintenance of the equipment, and all of that stuff. It's a very basic budget.
Noon
Clerk of the House of Commons
Arguably we're kind of in the best of both worlds, because we basically control the members—that is to say, the House controls the guidelines under which the broadcasting is actually done. Then CPAC and the consortium look after the distribution, which is the really big and tricky thing.
Noon
Conservative
February 14th, 2012 / noon
Conservative
Laurie Hawn Edmonton Centre, AB
I have a quick one with respect to archives. How long is this stuff archived? If I wanted to go back and get somebody's speech ten years ago, is that possible?
Noon
Clerk of the House of Commons
We have an agreement with Library and Archives Canada, but the entire broadcast, gavel to gavel, is not retained automatically. There's selectivity, because you end up with too much. I think digitization is going to help that, but we have to see.