Evidence of meeting #56 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was petition.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
I'm not technical enough to know whether this is possible, but would it be limited to IP addresses within Canada, in other words, another barrier to help prevent those who are not Canadians from...?
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Kennedy Stewart NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
My initial thought is that it should. You could easily verify whether the computers are from Canada or not.
Mr. Scott said you may be considering changing the rules so people outside Canada could sign petitions, and I think if you can overcome that with paper petitions you could easily overcome it with computers.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
You indicated there had been about 20 over three years in the U.K. at four hours each. We're talking about 80 hours of House time. That isn't an insignificant amount of House time, obviously, if it were similar to what has occurred there. I'm wondering if you've given any thought as to how, where, and when these debates would occur.
Obviously, we find we have a pretty packed schedule here, and to try to fit in another 80 hours over a few years wouldn't be an insignificant challenge. I'm wondering if you've given any thought as to when and how those debates would occur. There may be other things that would take a bit less time because of it. Have you thought about that?
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Kennedy Stewart NDP Burnaby—Douglas, BC
Again, to use other examples from other jurisdictions, they make sure the debates take place outside House hours, so you're not using House time, you're using outside of House time. In the U.K. sometimes they have them in different locations. They're in the House of Commons debates but they have another room. They have a number of halls in the Palace of Westminister and the debates take place there. That's why the 10 signatories are important as sponsors because that would be enough to have an active debate.
If you weren't on House duty and you could arrange these things, you could have the House sitting at the same time as this debate was happening. That's what they've done in the U.K. Arrangements could be made that would be very cost-effective. We could have examples from some place that has been doing it for three or four years. Australia has been doing it for almost a decade. I'm sure they've had these difficulties. The great thing is we could see how they changed it on the ground. They have the same system as we have, more or less. I think we can get around that quite easily.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
Mr. Stewart, we thank you for coming today.
A couple of quick questions from the chair, if you wouldn't mind.
The IP address has some danger to it, certainly from library computers. Senior centre computers were an issue that was very senior-related, you would think.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
We'd have to watch that, but anyway, we'll let the people who are smarter techies than I work on that one too.
As the member was asking, I think a great generator of debates on this committee will be the length of time, where it would take place. I think the 10 members responsible would feel obligated to be at that debate, so we know there will be 10.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
If we have further questions for you, we will send you an e-mail.
11:55 a.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Joe Preston
We thank you for your time.
Committee, we'll suspend for a couple of minutes while we go in camera on committee business.
[Proceedings continue in camera]