Procedure and House Affairs committee  Offhand, no, I don't think it would change all that much. Bear in mind that on a typical Friday, the House does not sit very many hours, or the same number. If those hours are taken up earlier in the other four days, then no time is lost for debate or for any other proceeding that the House may be taking up at that time, so I don't really see an impact in that sense.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It will be up to the committee to decide how to recommend those kinds of changes. If it wishes to keep the fifth hour of private members' business, it can do so. If it wishes to maintain a fifth period for routine proceedings, it can do that as well. Essentially, the committee has total freedom to recommend a structure that would accommodate the objectives you're describing.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As I said earlier, I think that gets the committee into a completely different realm of consideration. Distance legislation, legislating at a distance, voting at a distance, these are all fairly fundamental issues for any deliberative assembly, which would really require a lot of study and thought.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It would be a very significant change.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That isn't a House practice. But, as I said at the beginning of my presentation, the House is free to change its practices however it likes. As far as I know, the only example of a situation where such a practice is allowed is upon returning from the Senate, following a Speech from the Throne; in that instance, the Speaker is allowed to have the throne speech published in the record of proceedings as if it had been read.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Currently, the Speaker doesn't have that authority, but there is nothing preventing the House from giving the Speaker that power. As for the holding of votes at 3 p.m., you're right; that practice was adopted a few times. It works well insofar as the bells are generally not rung.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Frankly, I don't have an opinion on the best approach to take since changes have been made to the Standing Orders in a variety of ways, including the one you just described. I see that Mr. Reid is in the room. Just recently, he successfully had the Standing Orders changed by way of a private member's motion.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  With starting earlier, you're getting into more party-driven impacts. A lot of parties will be planning their day at certain early hours ahead of the opening of the House. Regional caucuses might be meeting and other groups of members might be meeting at that time. That would have to be taken into consideration.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'm not sure I understand the question.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Right now we're almost there. It's very rare to have a vote on a Friday. The votes that do take place typically are what I would call procedural votes, where parties try to use dilatory tactics. Other than that, votes on legislation and so on don't generally take place on Fridays.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I think this gets into a whole other area of discussion surrounding the role of members and what it is to be a deliberative assembly. It's a much bigger question than a practical one, if I could put it that way. That would almost require a separate examination. That would be a very significant change.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Members don't have any. That leave isn't available to members.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are bound to be unintended consequences, as I said, particularly when we're combining several different changes to the Standing Orders. Let's start with making up the time. It would be quite easy to add an hour of private members' business, the one lost on the Friday, either at the end of the day on Thursday or at the beginning of the day on Monday, let's say, or at the end of any other day for that matter.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I haven't done a full survey of all the provinces, but I don't believe that very many of them sit five days a week. A few do, but they don't all, that's for sure.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I hesitate to state that firmly because I haven't checked, but just from past knowledge, most of them do not.