Evidence of meeting #132 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 pps.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
You're probably safer going with a Standing Orders change.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
With the technology nowadays, it just seemed obvious. I know we stand up and sit down to vote. We don't have an electronic voting mechanism.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
I think your question is whether there is the capacity to put up a monitor or monitors that would play the role of a clock and show how much time members have left. I think we could probably answer that.
12:05 p.m.
Deputy Clerk, Administration, House of Commons
The answer is that the technology would be there, should the House decide to use it.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Scott Simms Liberal Coast of Bays—Central—Notre Dame, NL
I'll pursue that further as we move in.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I have an important question related to that.
Have we solved the parade between the Commons and the Senate? Are we taking the Confederation Line? Are we going to go down Wellington Street in the Popemobile?
12:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
The preference is to maintain the traditions and the ceremonies that have been part of our practice for 150 years. Adjustments will be made for the fact that we will exist in two buildings for a period of time, once the move takes place.
Proposals are being put forward to determine how this will be carried out. One would suspect, for example, that for the very first Speech from the Throne in the new location, House members might want to participate in the event. For future events, we will probably have to get into a process whereby we would actually solicit interest to determine the number of vehicles required to bring the members to the Senate.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Sadly, the transporter beam research hasn't been going that well.
12:10 p.m.
Voices
Oh, oh!
12:10 p.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
The Queen's crown is carried by a separate carriage for State Opening, so I suppose we could do the same thing for the mace.
12:10 p.m.
Conservative
John Nater Conservative Perth—Wellington, ON
I have a very quick question, which Mr. Reid brought to my attention. We talked about the new vans being purchased by PPS. Will those be equipped with defibrillators, and would there be an effort to equip all vehicles with defibrillators going forward?
12:10 p.m.
C/Supt Jane MacLatchy
That's an interesting question. In the police vehicles you see on the Hill, there are a couple of defibrillators within those, but as we said, we're moving away from the RCMP vehicles into PPS vehicles. I will talk to our operations folks. Right now, I don't believe there are defibrillators in all of our vehicles, but I will get you that information. It's an interesting idea to put a defibrillator in each one.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Will the vehicles be fully equipped police vehicles, or will they be civilian vehicles?
12:10 p.m.
C/Supt Jane MacLatchy
They will be PPS vehicles. It's a vehicle rated for law enforcement.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Is it a law-enforcement-equipped vehicle, or just a rated vehicle?
12:10 p.m.
C/Supt Jane MacLatchy
It will be equipped for the specific operational unit that's using it. In this case, it will have firearms capacity.
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Are we getting into an area that might be better covered in camera?
12:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
I'll use the chair's prerogative to ask one last question. Regarding the renovations of this building, this committee talked about a courtyard inside or outside, something for a playground for children, which leads to a larger question. There was an article in Policy Options about our input into the 13-year renovation of this building. I wonder if the clerk would be willing to have a session with this committee on that at some time in the future.