Evidence of meeting #102 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was petitions.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:20 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Anyone else?
David, do you have any comment? No.
Is the committee good with that? We'll leave it as is.
On the issue of needing five supporters for the petition to be able to go ahead, I'm surprised that 11% don't make it. I would have thought that if it were very clear up front that you needed five names, you wouldn't get any without five names.
Blake.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
I'm just trying to make sure I understand the concern here. Obviously, I haven't been involved in trying to set up one of these, but I know there is a requirement for them to have some support, which makes sense. They must have five people. What do they do to get that support? Do they email these people and ask them to sign the petition? How does this work? If it's a requirement to have five, I get the concern about maybe their choosing five people and one of them turns out to be ineligible, but can they choose 20 or 30 people and as long as they have five send it back? How does that work exactly? I'm a little unclear about that.
11:25 a.m.
Deputy Clerk, Procedure
When the petitioner creates the account and identifies some supporters, they can identify up to 10 individuals. We're not that aware of how they interact with those individuals beforehand, but clearly, individuals are identified. In some cases people just identify five, and maybe one of them is not exactly as good a Facebook friend as you thought they were and will not be support the petition. That's where some difficulties arise.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
That could just be a situation where they don't really have five supporters and they just take a flyer on five people, but in the cases where someone has taken the maximum they are allowed and said, here are 10 people, can you give us a sense of the rate of those not being the five? In my mind, if we're giving people the ability to say there are 10 people and they're choosing not to take that, it's really their own fault.
11:25 a.m.
Deputy Clerk, Procedure
It's a good indication that things are problematic. I don't think it's a big problem—I'm just checking with Jeremy on that.
It's not a big problem when, let's say, you put 10 names there. It's usually not an issue then. It's really when you only put five and the email address of one of the five is not correct. Now you're getting into trouble.
11:25 a.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Banff—Airdrie, AB
It sounds like this is really not a problem. In terms of the actual requirements themselves there's not a problem. It's people choosing not to take advantage of what's available to them that is the problem. If that's the case, that's your own mistake, not a problem with the requirements. That's what I'm seeing here, so maybe there's no need to change this.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
Are there any criteria for these five people? Do they have to be permanent residents or citizens?
11:25 a.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
It's the same as for any petition. They either have to be a resident or a Canadian citizen.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Raj Saini Liberal Kitchener Centre, ON
If they put the five people's names down, do you verify that? What's the verification process for the individual?
11:25 a.m.
Deputy Clerk, Procedure
It's the same verification process as for regular petitioners. We just verify that they are eligible. It's not exactly the same as the information being shared regarding the petitioner. It's a bit more for a petitioner.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
I don't like the suggestion that members would have to check all these requirements on petitions. We have enough things to do, so it's good that you're doing that, to make sure a petition is eligible.
Is it the sense of committee members to leave things the way they are?
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
I brought this issue up, I think. I agree with that, to change the name from “sponsor” to “presenter”, because “sponsor” suggests that you're actually supporting a petition, whereas if you're just presenting it in Parliament like a paper petition you're just presenting it.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I've never heard anybody get up in the House and say, “I disagree with this petition, Mr. Speaker.”
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
So that's okay? People agree with changing the term “sponsor” to “presenter”?
11:25 a.m.
Some hon. members
Agreed.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Now we are dealing with the issue of publishing paper petitions. I understand that the two options the clerk is suggesting here are....
What do you do with paper petitions right now once the government's made its recommendation?
11:25 a.m.
Deputy Clerk, Procedure
Once the government has responded to the petition, its response is tabled in the House and is available for consultation.