Evidence of meeting #138 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 building.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Good morning. Welcome to the 138th meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. This meeting is being televised.
Committee members, there is going to be a vote. Is it okay with you if we carry on until about 10 minutes before the vote?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Then we'll come back. I think people have a lot of questions, and this is a very important meeting.
I'd really like to thank all of our people for coming. Thank you for agreeing to my request to come. Thank you to the Clerk of the House of Commons for agreeing as well to my request to have this meeting, which I hope will be the beginning of a few. In response to the committee's request, the House administration organized today's briefing on the Centre Block rehabilitation project.
From the House, we are pleased to be joined by Stéphan Aubé, chief information officer; Susan Kulba, senior director and executive architect, real property directorate; and Lisette Comeau, senior architectural strategist, real property directorate. Here from Centrus Architects are Larry Malcic, lead representative, and Duncan Broyd, functional program lead. As well, we have Rob Wright, assistant deputy minister, parliamentary precinct branch, from Public Services and Procurement Canada.
Welcome as well to Jennifer Garrett.
You're with...?
Jennifer Garrett Director General, Centre Block Program, Department of Public Works and Government Services
I'm with Public Services.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay.
I want to mention that in the Hill Times you have in front of you, the Speaker has written an article. I just want to read one quote from it, on why this meeting is so important. It states:
That is why the design process will involve parliamentarians. Their understanding and their perspectives on the workings of Canada’s parliamentary democracy are essential to the design. As the caretakers of our parliamentary democracy, they must be engaged throughout the process in a substantial way.
Parliamentarians are not architects or engineers. We wouldn't get into those details, but Parliament wouldn't be here without parliamentarians. That's why it's here. They know from their experience what works and what doesn't. They have very valuable input. It's very important.
You know, when I choose a home, I get to design it so that it works for the things I need. I don't do the engineering of it or anything. That's why it's very important that we have this meeting and have, as the Speaker mentioned, ongoing participation throughout the process. This is very important. We really appreciate your coming here and having all this expertise so that we know how and when we will be able to continue this process to make sure that our input is instrumental in the design.
I'm not sure how many people will be making opening comments.
Who will do the opening comments?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay.
There are lots of questions, so if we have to extend...or we'll see what we'll do if we can't get through them all.
You're on. Thank you very much.
Susan Kulba Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
Thank you.
My name is Susan Kulba, and I am the Senior Director and Executive Architect of the House of Commons.
I'm here today with the team who's responsible for the Centre Block project. I'm under digital services and real property at the House of Commons, led by the CIO, Stéphan Aubé. With me is one of the architects on my team, Lisette Comeau, who's the architectural strategist for heritage.
We have with us also Larry Malcic, who is from Centrus. It's a design consortium that's been hired by PSPC for the Centre Block program. He's the lead representative. Duncan Broyd is the functional program lead representative.
We have Rob Wright, the ADM from PSPC who is responsible for the overall program, and Jennifer Garrett, the director general of PSPC who is responsible for Centre Block.
We thank the committee very much for inviting us here today to hear from you and to engage with you. It's an opportune time in the project. We're in the functional requirement gathering phase of the project, and it's very important to us to have the input from parliamentarians. You represent Canadians all over this great country. We want to hear from you on what's important to be incorporated into the building program of work.
We're here to hear about two aspects. One is on more of a philosophical level: What's important about Canada today, and what would you like to see inspire us in the design of this renovation program? We're also very, very interested in and look forward to hearing your valuable contributions on the functional requirement. How does this building work for you currently? How do you see it working for you in the future? What doesn't work? What will a future parliamentarian be doing in this building, and how can we design for the next 50 years of parliamentary activities?
Essentially, it is not just the renovation of this great historic building. It also involves the addition of a new visitor welcome centre. We're looking at ways of modernizing this building and creating space for the future functions of an evolving Parliament. It's very important to have your opinions and your perspective on how it is to function here.
We look to the original design by Pearson, who really did a fantastic job on this building incorporating the past, the present and the future. It's our opportunity right now to go forward and incorporate a new layer of heritage in these new renovations.
We're here to really seek your feedback, and we will continue to engage. Our Speaker is very interested in having parliamentary engagement all the way through the project, so it's very significant for us to be here and to continue that engagement through the board to parliamentarians throughout the project.
We have been working quite a lot together on this project in terms of establishing the base requirements, but in doing so we've been doing investigative work on the existing building to inform the future project. There have been some enabling projects that are going to allow us to segregate this building and have a better understanding of the physical makeup and the historical fabric of the building.
We've put together a vision statement, and we've had engagement with the Clerk and the Speaker on that. We'll essentially share that with you and then open up for discussion.
The vision, as written today, is this.
Centre Block is the home of the nation's federal Parliament. Our vision for the rehabilitation of Centre Block is to safeguard and honour its heritage as the epicentre of Canadian democracy; to support the work of parliamentarians; to accommodate the institution's evolving needs; to enhance the visitor experience; and to modernize the building's infrastructure.
With that, we would like to open up for questions, comments and discussion.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Great.
I'd also like to welcome Jennifer Ditchburn, and refer people to an excellent article on Policy Options on this topic.
As you said, form follows function. We certainly hope to provide you the form that we need.
It's ironic that we're having this meeting in the reading room. It was the reading room where the fire started when the original Centre Block burned down.
I think we'll try to do one round of questions with every party, and then we'll maybe open it up to have the open format after that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
We have 22 minutes until the bells, so we have about 12 minutes.
We'll start with Mr.—
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Mr. Chair, it's so close, we know we can make it in time. Why don't we make it five minutes for each party? That leaves it at 15. We'll still have seven minutes to get to the House.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Thank you.
Thank you, everyone, for being here today.
You talked about consulting parliamentarians. I don't understand in terms of how to seek the committee's feedback at this particular point, because we're asking questions and you're answering questions, so it's not necessarily a good mechanism to provide feedback.
On the consultation of parliamentarians, has that happened? Will it happen? What does the timeline look like on that if it hasn't happened?
Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
To date, there has been consultation with the Speaker. We're in the very early phases. The next phase will be obviously to brief you and then go to the board and establish a way for that consultation to happen.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Do we have any timeline for when that will begin or a best guess?
Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
We expect that in January we'll have a plan that we can come back with.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Is there an intention to consult with members of the public? I know, as parliamentarians and staff here at the House of Commons, we sometimes believe this is our workplace, but it belongs to the people of Canada. Is there a plan for consultations with the public?
Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
To date we had expected that parliamentarians would be feeding us back some information and expectations from their constituents. PSPC has indicated that we can do a public consultation if we feel it would be worthwhile.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
For many decades there's been a workplace with desks and phones set aside for members of the press gallery. Will that room still exist in Centre Block?
Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
Currently, that is the plan.
Liberal
Chris Bittle Liberal St. Catharines, ON
Do we know yet, in terms of the size, if a decision has been made whether that will increase, decrease or stay the same?
Senior Director and Executive Architect, Real Property Directorate, House of Commons
No. We're way too early in the project for that at this point.
