Evidence of meeting #15 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was question.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We'll take three questions and then turn it over to the fellows to answer.
Go ahead, Peter.
4:05 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
In British Columbia, the public accounts committee is now meeting by teleconference. They've had no problems. They have witnesses from various parts of the province. Have we been looking at the best practices of other legislatures? I do find it a bit perplexing that we're having so many technical problems when other legislatures and parliaments are able to overcome these technical issues.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Does anybody else have a question? We'll go to a third and then let the fellows answer.
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
Julie Dzerowicz Liberal Davenport, ON
Does Zoom have any privacy concerns? I know someone has raised that with me and whether that's something we have to care about. I know we want this to be public, but are there any privacy issues that would need to be considered?
4:05 p.m.
Liberal
4:10 p.m.
Clerk Assistant, Committees and Legislative Services Directorate, House of Commons
I'll start and then, Stéphan, you can jump in.
I'll address the second question first about the British Columbia public accounts committee and what other jurisdictions are doing.
Indeed, the House has been in close contact with many other parliaments to see what they're doing and how they're doing it. The big challenge that we have that most of them don't have—that in fact pretty well all of them don't have—is, as was mentioned by the chair in the opening statement that we provided to him, the need to provide simultaneous interpretation during the proceedings. That adds a layer of complexity in terms of technicality that they don't face.
In terms of Zoom, both the privacy and the interpretation issues, Zoom is actually the option that we're currently exploring. It's looking good, but maybe I'll turn it over to Stéphan to describe a little what the challenge is in terms of adding interpretation.
April 2nd, 2020 / 4:10 p.m.
Stéphan Aubé Chief Information Officer, Digital Services and Real Property, House of Commons
Mr. Chair, just to build on Eric's comments, we've been working with different products, after consultations around the world, as far as looking at who is doing what and what solutions are being undertaken goes.
Our current focus over the last few weeks has been leveraging Zoom and looking at the opportunity to integrate it into our existing committee infrastructure. We've successfully been able to do some tests over this week and we're confident, with a dedicated team that we've put together over the last two weeks, that we'll be able to establish the technology solution as well as the proper support.
I think, Mr. Chair, you heard a little bit earlier that we do have to take into consideration the members' infrastructure at the other end of the phone call or the video conferencing call, so we are putting in place the proper support model, the proper solutions, to actually broadcast it across Canada.
We've done some successful testing this week and hopefully we'll be able to have a solution working next week.
Something we're trying to address this week is actually the security concerns that the members previously looked at. We're configuring a solution, leveraging Zoom right now, to try to minimize any privacy or security risks to our infrastructure.
4:10 p.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Mr. Chair, first of all, there is no privacy concern. These meetings are public, so if the KGB wants to listen in, they can listen in anyway. They don't need to hack into the system; they just tune it. The meetings are all public. The journalists were listening throughout. I was tweeting about the meeting while it was happening. The whole world knows, and there is no security issue whatsoever.
Second, translation is really simple. For those of us who are bilingual, we'll just listen to the Zoom conversation in both languages. For those of us who want to hear a translation, all we need to do is have a separate phone, call in to a translation hotline and have it translated that way. The translator is watching the proceedings and translating, just as they do on Parliament Hill. If the person who has the floor speaks English, the translator translates it into French. If the person who has the floor is speaking French, the translator translates it into English. Anybody who wants to listen in only one language will just dial into that translation hotline and the translator will translate. It's pretty simple.
4:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
All right, that gives Mr. Janse and Mr. Aubé something else to think about.
Are there any other points that members want to make?
I would mention, Mr. Janse and Mr. Aubé, that the health committee will be meeting on Tuesday, which you're aware of. We will be meeting for four hours on Wednesday and we'll be meeting again for four hours on Thursday, just so you're aware of that.
I guess the health committee will be the one to get the trial run, and we don't mind that a bit.
Is there anything anybody else wants to add?
Yes, Peter.
4:10 p.m.
NDP
Peter Julian NDP New Westminster—Burnaby, BC
If there are requirements in terms of equipment, that would also be good for us to know.
Thanks for all your work, and hopefully we'll be up and running next week.
4:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
Thank you to both.
I will likely have to go from where I am to Charlottetown to find a location that has better technology than I have in my constituency office.
In any event, thank you and thank you to the team working on this to try to put the video conferencing together for us. We appreciate that very much.
Thank you to all the members on the call.
We will talk to all of you tomorrow.
The meeting is adjourned.