Evidence of meeting #147 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 debate.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Clerk of the House of Commons
Mr. Lenthall never lost his head, by the way. He died an old man in his eighties.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
Yes, but he is the one who protected the independence of the House—
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
—and so I think if there's a name that recalls why we have this chamber, and anybody coming in—
Clerk of the House of Commons
Or you might call it the King Charles I chamber, then.
Liberal
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
I actually had a question on the subject.
I personally am not married to the idea of any particular name—I know there's been a lively discussion about this—nor to the specific location it goes in. In the long run, I agree that you'd want to find a suitable location. To some degree the way it evolves would indicate what location is suitable, I would think, so we would learn that. As a practical matter, we are in no position to pick a permanent location now, given the fact that we ourselves are not in a permanent location in the main chamber. I just offer those things. I feel the same with regard to the name. That may, I think, evolve with time.
Having said all of that, the question that arises for me is this. Let us say, for the sake of argument, that we were to do as you've suggested, debate this in the Standing Order 51 debate that would arise 60 to 90 days after the beginning of the 43rd Parliament. Let's imagine, for the sake or argument, that at some point in the life of the 43rd Parliament it comes into existence. These are not guaranteed things, but they're reasonable speculations. Then, let us say, we came to the Clerk and said, “It looks like it's going ahead. What room would you suggest?”
What room would you suggest?
Clerk of the House of Commons
I assume that in the discussion about the parallel chamber, there would be some reference to the expected size or the rate of participation by the members, and I think that will help to determine which room would be suitable. If you really go massive and you really want to have something that would be meeting frequently, let's just toss this out—SJAM. If you wanted something smaller—
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
That's the Sir John A. Macdonald Building across the street.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
That was for those watching us and listening in, eagerly, on the recorded version.
Clerk of the House of Commons
If you anticipated that it would be something considerably smaller, then one of the larger committee rooms might be fitted out for that purpose.
Conservative
Scott Reid Conservative Lanark—Frontenac—Kingston, ON
Right. In practice, I think it would have to be a dedicated room, so if you're trying to keep it in this building, which you might want to do in order to allow it, for example, when the bells ring, to go a certain number of minutes into the bells ringing, you could have a special order for that.
Conservative
