Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Dec. 11th, 2018

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

After 17 and a half years of enjoying having an office in this building—in fact, my office was directly above that oval green shape up there, on the fourth floor—I've been moved out, against my will, to the Confederation Building.

I'm not complaining, but I do have this question about the Confederation Building. It too has a tower. The building was built almost exactly at the same time as the new Centre Block was built, and completed, in that case, in 1931. Atop the tower, was a bronze statue of what was seen as the most modern transportation, a biplane, which served as a weather vane. At some point I assume it just stopped rotating in the wind, it was taken down and it's vanished.

For things like that.... I'm actually curious about that particular item itself. I don't think it should be destroyed or removed. I think eventually it should get back up there when we finish doing our work on the Confederation Building.

Let me just start with that one. We're dealing with secondary buildings, buildings that are part of the Hill precinct. They're not as iconic as this one, but they nonetheless have great historical value. May I assume that items like that are being preserved and that the intention is to restore them at some point in their original form?

[Rob Wright]

Yes, absolutely. In fact, with all the heritage assets within the parliamentary precinct, we take great care in the planning and their future restoration and modernization.

The Confederation Building is certainly one of those facilities that is in the plans to be fully restored on a go-forward basis, including the old weather vane, which unfortunately several years ago had to be removed because it was posing health and safety risks. The plan would be to reinstate that in due time.

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

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Is there anyone else?

Yes, David.

[David Christopherson]

Chair, I was just going to ask this, in the interest of ensuring as best we can in this Parliament, that the PROC committee continues to play the kind of oversight that I think the majority, if not all of us, agree should happen. Is it in the best interest of this committee to notationally schedule a follow-up briefing so it's at least there?

The clerk of the next committee can advise the committee that this was suggested or set aside as a time. No Parliament can bind a future Parliament, but again, it's to do everything we can to make sure that this doesn't fall off the table. Time is the enemy, as we're learning with West Block—finding out that there are issues and that a bit of input at the front end might have made a big difference in the operation.

I leave that with you, Chair. I don't even know if we can do it or not, but I think it's certainly within our purview to leave a suggested date, say maybe six or eight months in, after they get settled and get into a routine. The clerk and the chair of the day can bring it back to the committee and say, “Hey, the last committee in the last Parliament thought that this might be a good time”. Then they can be seized of the issue and decide whatever it is they're going to decide at that time.

I just leave that with you, Chair, as a belt and suspenders in making sure that we don't lose this thing.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We won't lose this. My understanding, from what Ms. Kulba said, is that there will be a lot more engagement before that—like in the near future—as they work on the plans.

I'm certainly glad that everyone accepted my suggestion to have this meeting. I think a lot of good communication has been done. It's a great path forward to having a very successful centre of democracy for the people and for everyone involved. It's a very important building for Canada, and it's great to have such professionals as you working on it. As we work on it together as a team, I think we will have a much better path forward now. It's very exciting, so thank you very much.

For the committee, if the House is still sitting on Thursday, we'll do our meeting on the report. If it's not, we probably won't meet.

Thank you, everyone. The meeting is adjourned.