Procedure and House Affairs Committee on March 10th, 2016

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

I'm careful not to participate in debates, but I wanted to make a point. I've traded off on my Friday sittings this year, so that's not the issue, but the issue is the votes Thursday night. As you know, it takes me about 12 to 14 hours to get back to my riding, and if there's a vote on Thursday night, I can't get back on Thursday. Whether or not there's a Friday sitting, I'm travelling all day on Friday, anyway.

Are there any more comments?

Mr. Reid.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

I was getting a bit worried that we wouldn't be able to get to other matters. I still have a motion on the floor regarding bringing back the members of the advisory committees. I hope we'll be able to get to that and perhaps have a vote on it today.

On this subject, the Thursday matter is a really good one. I think it can be dealt with by a separate change to the standing orders to move it. Am I right that if it was moved to right after question period on Thursdays that would be okay from your perspective? You, arguably, have the biggest travel problem of anybody here, so your answer would be good.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes, that would be a lot better.

It changes all the time.

Ms. Vandenbeld, and then Ms. Sahota.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I wanted to respond to Mr. Reid's point. Sometimes it's not pre-scheduled votes, but the possibility of dilatory motions or unexpected things, and for that reason a certain number of MPs often have to be within 15 minutes of the Hill.

I know that when we have the late show, we can go on autopilot. There are ways that we could perhaps accommodate that, even on a Friday, by assuring that it's.... I know that the issue of quorum is in the Constitution, so it's not likely that our committee is going to be addressing the possibility of reducing quorum, but it could mean going on autopilot more often whereby, on a Friday, you know there will not be a vote when you suddenly need to bring back a number of MPs into the House for an unexpected vote. I think that's more the case.

Since I've been here, we haven't had a pre-scheduled vote on a Thursday night, but there's still a requirement for us to have House duty and to be present. I know a number of my colleagues have told me about that.

[Scott Reid, Conservative, Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON]

Anita's quite right. It's a point that I hadn't taken into consideration.

What tends to happen with Thursday votes is not that they happen, but parties play this game of threatening each other, so you're not sure up until the last moment whether or not it's going to happen.

I'm not trying to deal with that gamesmanship. Something in a rule change would do it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

As you say, the rules could be changed. We've done it for Fridays. There are no votes on Fridays.

Ms. Sahota.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I just wanted to point out that I think it would be very useful if Anita would hand over that survey. Perhaps the Conservatives especially could take that survey, because we haven't been able to get much feedback from them, and they have a lot of members in the House. It's important to make sure we know how their members feel, because I'm starting to feel that perhaps at times, as Anita was saying, some of the members would be more willing to participate anonymously to say how they feel, and that they are not willing to do so out of fear of being chastised or looked down upon for not wanting to work hard enough, though that's surely not the case.

We're already seeing articles in which the media is spinning this as us wanting to work less. We just want to figure out how we can get good representation in this House and not have certain people discouraged from running in elections. That's something we were talking about with the minister, that so many people want to represent and take a lot of pride in representing their people. We want to make sure we get a good balance of those people. I personally have talked to a lot of Conservatives who have strong views on family-friendly politics and who do want to see certain areas of change. That might not necessarily mean the Fridays or whatever.

At some point, Mr. Richards was saying they definitely don't want to see us removing accountability, but I don't know where that's coming from because I don't think in all our discussions we ever talked about removing any sort of accountability. We'll still be having question period and we're still trying.... I think there is pretty much a consensus, according to the feedback we have so far, that we don't want to eliminate hours; we just want to figure out how we can schedule our days to accommodate people's needs.

I needed to say that. I really urge everybody to get involved in this important discussion. We have the opportunity in this Parliament to make some changes so that we can see better representation in the future, and if we don't take that seriously now, then quite frankly, all our parties are going to suffer. I don't see this as just a Liberal problem. I'm sure in the NDP and the Conservatives you want to attract a greater variety of people from different backgrounds into your caucuses, so I think we should take this exercise seriously and put some effort into it and make sure everybody is consulted within the caucuses, because I have talked to people on all sides of the parties and there are a lot of opinions. I'm not saying we're all going to come to one conclusion, but the thoughts deserve to be represented.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I know there's been a suggestion that we go back to the motion, but I have to say that I am kind of anxious for us to get at the witness list simply because we need to start scheduling those things. They take a lot of time. This thing's already getting a bit unfocused, so I really think if we're going to keep this file moving in a timely way, Chair, that we need to get those witnesses nailed down and get the clerk coordinating them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Okay.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Can I just make a suggestion now, Mr. Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

Obviously we don't have a lot of time left today to really have much of a discussion here anyway. I have a list of names we as a group are suggesting for witnesses. Maybe it would be better if everyone submitted their names, and the clerk could then send those around. I know there were some sent around. I don't know who suggested them. We would obviously add some to that list. Maybe we could have it sent around again. We just received it late yesterday. It might be good for all members to have a chance to look over the list and see what they think of the various suggestions. Then we can have a proper, fully informed discussion about them the next time we have a chance, which I hope will be at the next meeting. I don't know what we have scheduled.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We had the deadline of last...whatever it was, and we have a list here, which we'll distribute, but if you have more, we'll take those suggestions and we can add them. Everybody can have the list we have so far with everything up to today.

Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I'm not looking to pick a fight here, but part of the business was witness lists, so it kind of surprises me.... It almost seems as though they're not ready. I don't know why they're not ready. We are, and I get the sense the government is. This is not new. I don't know what the problem is.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

And there's a—

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

I have to share the concern. You start to wonder whether or not all three parties are as engaged in moving forward in this as we put forward. I'll just leave that there.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

I just want to quickly respond to that.

Obviously we all have an intention to try to move forward and look at this in a full manner. It's just that obviously having just seen some of these lists, we haven't really had a chance to clearly look at them. It's not that anyone is trying to delay anything. I would like to see us get there.

We have seven minutes or so left in the meeting. If we want to start the discussion, I guess that's okay, but I do think that there's a pressing time demand on Mr. Reid's motion as well. We've indicated in the motion he has that we would see them at the committee before the end of March. It seems to me the government is trying to stall and delay that, but I think we need to move forward with that. I think that actually takes precedence here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

There's one thing I'd like to decide on quickly. The Chief Electoral Officer could come on May 3 or 5, which is a long way from now, but to give them the time to plan does anyone have any problem with us picking one of those two dates?

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Do we have work plans, current work plans?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

There's nothing for May.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

In the absence of a work plan, what do we have scheduled around that, Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Around that time...?

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Right now, it's open. We're going to do our report and stuff.