Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 12th, 2016

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you, ladies.

Ms. Flores, you raised two or three points I'd like to discuss further.

You mentioned the very alcohol-focused receptions, where less than healthy food options are served. You are absolutely right. Unfortunately, people do have substance abuse issues, whether it be alcohol, drugs, or something else. What's more, the divorce rate among MPs is high.

One of my duties as party whip is to help members, but the services available in the parliamentary precinct are quite limited.

Do you think support services for members should be improved as part of the work-family balance initiative? It's not easy for someone with an alcohol problem to admit it, talk about it, or seek help. Do you have anything to suggest in that regard?

That question is for Ms. Spinks and Ms. Warkentin, as well.

[Regina Flores]

It would be great to have external professional services available, such as consultation for groups that can come and take a moment to share the struggles that they're having. I'm not a professional, but I have heard that there are some MPs who have pledged, in solidarity with their colleagues, to not drink at events because they're going through things like that. It seems very isolated, and there's not a big support network.

I've toyed with the idea, just because it's my preference to have a mini yoga express offered, and some MPs have shown interest. Yes, I think that's needed, and I think this is the time when people are more open to that.

[Nora Spinks]

I think that goes back to the whole concept of what we are hoping to achieve here. In part, what we're hoping to achieve is to ensure that all MPs not only have a healthy home life, healthy relationships, and a solid circle of support, but also that they are healthy and well themselves in order to fulfill their multiple responsibilities. It's a tough job. It's hard on your body. It's hard on your life. It's a hard job to do. It's also fulfilling, and it's exciting, and it's enriching, and it's important work that needs to be done.

There are organizations, and other companies, who have chosen to make a lot of their evening events alcohol free. It all depends, and if that's going to be one of the priorities, multi-purposing this health and wellness concept with everything, then it's not just looking at meeting schedules and things, but also about how you feed yourselves and how you look at the way you run your day. Why not start question period with a little deep breathing to put everybody in the right space? It sounds funny at first, but if you saw the paper this morning, there were police officers doing yoga and meditation before they go out to do their work.

This is the day and age where we're now beginning to recognize the significant importance of health and well-being. We're all building mind, body, and spirit to live to be 100. Whether you're in the House for 10 years, or 20 years, or you have 20 years after to do something else, we need to make sure that we don't burn people out and that we don't require them to sacrifice their personal relationships and their relationships with their spouses, or with their children, or with their communities because we can't figure our how to coordinate calendars. We're so beyond that now that we should be able to get the easy stuff out of the way and start dealing with the important stuff.

[Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet, NDP, Hochelaga, QC]

Thank you.

Before I turn the floor over to Mr. Christopherson, who would like to speak with you, I'd like to say something.

We've already suggested another option to the committee—allocating travel points to other people. For example, Ms. Moore sometimes brings her aunt with her to babysit. Perhaps, then, the points could be extended to individuals who aren't part of the immediate family. That's something that could help families.

But that isn't a question for you, so I'll hand the floor over to Mr. Christopherson.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

You have 30 seconds, Mr. Christopherson.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Thank you. I'll segue to the last issue and say on the points system that when I was at Queen's Park, we adopted the points system that was here federally because our system was unfair. They used to only show the dollar amounts in terms of what it cost you to travel from your riding to the capital. That's fine for me. I'm in Hamilton and the capital is in Toronto, but if you're in Sault Ste. Marie, your dollars look different. We changed it to the points system that they have here, meaning if you use x number of trips, it counts as points.

Yet we're still left with the political problem, Ms. Warkentin. I think your point's well taken. There has to be accountability, but maybe there's a way of pooling that, because the idea is the accountability. People know you took that trip, and if you want to know the total dollar amount, there you go. If you want to break it down, call Air Canada. It's easy to figure out what this would likely be. I get that whole point.

It's this element of fairness. It's much easier for me, even in Hamilton, to move my family to the capital than it is all the way from the western end of the country. We need something there, without losing the accountability, and I appreciate your saying that. We can't lose that. There has to be something here in terms of a little more fairness, because your family would take a bigger hit publicly for doing the very same thing that I'm doing, strictly because of your geography, and that's not fair.

Thanks, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Ms. Sahota.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I would like to start off by thanking all of you for being here today.

I'm interested to know a little more about the spouses association and how many active spouses you have in the association. Was the question as to Friday sittings posed to all the association's members? Do you have a lot of male spouses that are active on your association? How was the consultation process done? Was there a survey or what were the means?

[Michelle Warkentin]

I've been involved with the PSA the entire time. They did send out the questions via email to all the spouses, and yes that means male and female. They asked me to speak, so I wrote to all the Conservative spouses because I have access to all their email addresses. I asked for another volunteer to take my place and also pose the questions again and ask for a response.

Not only that, but then I started calling as well. I also spoke to several male spouses. The PSA is a great organization to give support, and I highly encourage the Liberals to also form their own Liberal spouses association. There's such support to be had within that. Did that answer your whole question?

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Were they asked about the schedule and the Friday sittings? How many of them responded to these emails? I'd like to find out whether we have a good amount of people that are giving us representation.

[Michelle Warkentin]

Yes, they had about nine or 10, and I had about 25.

[Regina Flores]

The questionnaire was a written questionnaire with, I think, seven questions. I received 12 responses, and about eight out of the 12 agreed that Friday off would be great.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

We didn't get that through the presentation.

[Michelle Warkentin]

There is a difference. A lot of scepticism was voiced, just with the concern that if you're going to shorten the week then Thursday might be a longer day. Then those who have farther to travel cannot fly home Thursday night like they would typically do, because Fridays are covered by local MPs or those who are on rotating House duty. I would just like to make that point.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Percentage-wise, you would say more voted in favour than not in favour.

[Regina Flores]

I was just looking at the responses received to the association, not the Conservative edition.

[Michelle Warkentin]

I had about 25, and the PSA had about 12. I think that then, even amongst the 12, there was a couple that were not in favour.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

It would be great to have even more input. If it's possible, I'd love to see the feedback we could get from all the spouses. It would be nice.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

If you could send anything in writing to the committee, it would be great to have more information.

[Nora Spinks]

Let me also share with you a little bit from the language around “family friendly” and around “accommodation” and around “inclusive work environments”.

Considering the whole question of accountability and transparency, I think we have to stop using the term “off”. Friday is not “off”; Friday is just different work. I think it's really important to recognize that we're talking about parliamentary work and riding work. Family still wraps around all of it, but I think we need to be really careful, when we're asking the questions, about how we're asking them.

I want to comment on what was said about bringing families to Ottawa. There is a gender divide when it comes to males and females bringing families to Ottawa. Men historically most often brought their families to Ottawa and stayed connected. Women tended to leave their families behind because they tended to have a spouse in the paid labour force who was working back home. We have to be careful when we're looking at this. There are some gender differences when it comes to strategies and solutions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Our last questioner is Mr. Schmale.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

Thank you very much, the three of you, for coming and sharing your thoughts. It's greatly appreciated.

The Parliamentary Spouses Association does great work. Thank you for everything that has been done. I recognize what you said earlier about using travel points for coming to and from the capital based on where you live and how public disclosure affects choices about how you make the decisions about whether you come to Ottawa to see your spouse or not. Although we need disclosure, I think this may be an area we can look at.

Just out of curiosity, when you hold events for the spouses association, do you get more involvement, because of what we have talked about, by spouses who live closer to Ottawa, in Ontario, Quebec, that kind of thing, rather than out west or down east? I think it's very important that we include our spouses. I think their knowing what we do and their maybe seeing everything are very different. When you're here and experience it, you can understand.

I'm just curious whether distance is a barrier to their participating in some of the events that are held.

[Michelle Warkentin]

It's not necessarily. If you saw the spousal event today, I would say I was quite surprised by how many were here from other parties, in fact.

I think it depends on your stage of life and how available you are to travel. If you have young kids at home.... I brought one child with me, so I have left two at home. But you know, it's not even children. I appreciated your saying that. It's elder parents as well. I know one spouse couldn't come because she's taking care of her parents. I think it depends on your stage of life and on your flexibility to be able to come to attend spousal events. Quite a number made the effort to come.

Then, even if you're local, you have more of a life here, and then it's hard to get the time away as well. It's not an easy answer, that way.

[Jamie Schmale, Conservative, Haliburton—Kawartha Lakes—Brock, ON]

I agree; it is tough, but when I go back to the riding, I'm trying to figure out ways to incorporate my family into this life. I have 11 Santa Claus parades. Right after Remembrance Day—the Sunday after—it starts and it goes all the way until December 15th, it was this past year. It was tough, and the House wasn't sitting, so I can imagine that if the House were sitting it would be just.... I would be grumpy. My staff would be grumpy. My spouse would be grumpy. My kid would be grumpy. I actually started bringing him to some of the parades. It worked out well. Luckily it wasn't a cold winter, so it worked out very well.

[An hon. member]

You could explain it to him.