Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 14th, 2019

[Jennifer Garrett]

I was only referring to an intention of the House administration to do an engagement with parliamentarians. It has been clear to PSPC that the engagement process will be executed through the House of Commons administration, so I defer to Mr. Patrice's comments on that matter.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Mr. Graham.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I would also encourage you to have a panel of former parliamentarians involved, because as we get further and further from 2019, there will be fewer and fewer people who remember what Centre Block is supposed to be like.

I'd say, “Call David”—

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

—because he would be a good asset for you because he will soon be a former MP, sadly.

On the topic of the secondary debating chamber—this is more of a comment than a question—I would encourage you to look at a permanent space as an idea, not at a committee room that we can reassign, because the structure of the room would be physically different. It would have to be. With the galleries and the television, it would be a different structure. If you leave it as a committee room that gets reassigned, then one week it will have three days. The next week it will have two days. The next week it will just be forgotten. So, it has to have its own structure in place. I want to put that on record.

With regard to Linda's comments on the rang d'Oignon—which is a phrase I love—looking at the 400-seat arrangement you have.... I had the distinct pleasure of having the middle of the five-seat section in the last chamber, and while the chairs were way more physically comfortable than the chairs we have now, the actual egress and entry to those is an absolute royal pain in the ass. If we cannot do that, I would be much obliged.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Nicely put.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Yes.

Is there any physical possibility of physically enlarging the chamber?

[Rob Wright]

That option illustrates the challenge, I think. It's not an option that we're saying or advocating should be implemented. We're working on a broad range of options. What that indicates is that if the House wants to maintain its existing set up, that's essentially how to make it work. There are a lot of downsides to that, and that's recognized.

Then it's a conversation about what other ways would work for the House of Commons, whether that would be—and I'm just kind of speaking out loud here—kind of progressing towards benches similar to the U.K. model over time; whether that is taking a very different, more radical approach to putting in the seating; or whether that is enlarging the chamber. These are very important considerations that would, as Ms. Garrett indicated, make it critically important to take decisions as early as we can and have those decisions last until the end of the project.

Enlarging the chamber is very challenging in its own right. There are some significant challenges from a structural and architectural perspective in that part of the building. It's possible, as most things are, but there would be significant costs involved. To make that decision, we would have to, I think, make sure that we've touched bottom on a broad range of options and really be sure that we settle with consensus on what we feel is the right option.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Is the railway station, now the Senate of Canada building, going to remain as part of the parliamentary precinct after the renovations of Centre Block are finished?

[Rob Wright]

The reading and railway rooms?

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

No, the railway building, the station.

[Rob Wright]

Oh, sorry.

At this point, those are considered temporary buildings. For the Rideau Committee Rooms, I think we have a lease in place until something like 2034 with the National Capital Commission, so they were planned as temporary accommodations.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

You showed a map of the front lawn that shows that we will lose about half of the lawn with the new building. Is that correct? The road would also be quite a bit farther south than it currently is. Is that also correct?

[Rob Wright]

That's just during the construction phase.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

That's not a permanent thing.

[Rob Wright]

It's not permanent at all, no.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

The road will go up above into Centre Block again.

[Rob Wright]

That would be all underground. The entrance would be as close.... So, you'd walk up South Drive, for example, and you would enter in almost at grade. There would be a slight downslope to enter into the facility, and essentially the Vaux wall would be on top of that facility, so the look and feel of the Hill would return to what it is today.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

How long are we going to lose the lawn for, and where are Canada Day celebrations going to go?

[Rob Wright]

Those are two important questions. One thing we could consider, if it were something that Parliament wanted, is a phasing of the visitor welcome centre in the Centre Block. It would be possible to open the visitor welcome centre perhaps significantly ahead of the Centre Block. We haven't really looked at that in a detailed way yet, but if it were a desire of Parliament to phase that, then the visitor welcome centre could open in advance. I would be careful about how much time in advance that would be, but let's call it a significant period in advance of the Centre Block. It would potentially do a couple of important things: It would return the look and feel of the Hill more quickly and it would provide additional amenities for visitors as well as important services to support the operations of Parliament. So that's a conversation.

For Canada Day, we have been working very closely with Canadian Heritage, who's the lead on that, as well as the parliamentary partners to try to ensure that all of those core activities that occur on the Hill, especially during the summer months, remain in a modified form. This year there will be zero impact. Then, as we move forward, there will be modified.... We're looking at having a modified sound and light show, trying to ensure that it remains, and an element of Canada Day; it would have to be modified. There's the changing of the guard and all of those elements, from making sure that the flag continues to be changed on the Peace Tower to making sure that the carillon continues to be played as long as possible.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

When I started on the Hill almost a decade ago, I heard rumours that there was consideration given to using the front lawn of Parliament as an underground parking lot. Has that ever been considered in a serious way?

[Rob Wright]

I don't think it's ever been considered in a serious way. I think there have been some exploratory elements. We have looked at removing surface parking, which is a principle of the long-term vision and plan. For the most part, most of the feasibility, I'll call it, has looked more at the western area of the campus rather than the front lawn.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Linda touched on the tunnel access between buildings. Confederation and Justice had a tunnel built a few years ago. I think I mentioned this in the previous meeting. In 2011 they ripped out the lawn between those two buildings. It still hasn't reopened. It was supposed to be closed for a year or two.

That tunnel was built recently, within the timeline of the LTVP, but it was not done in a way that staffers and parliamentarians could use it. Why not? Will there be some remediation of that? What is the long-term plan to have all the buildings interconnected by tunnel?

[Rob Wright]

I'll have to get back to you on the specifics of that, but the long-term plan, working with Parliament on what services you need, is to have an interconnected campus where, for example, Wellington Street is less of a barrier within the campus, and the Wellington Building, the Sir John A. Macdonald and Valour buildings and the West Block are interconnected, as are Confederation and Justice, and then the visitor welcome centre in a much more meaningful way. It almost becomes one integrated facility.

That is the planning on a go-forward basis. We have conceptual but not detailed plans on those tunnels. We have worked that out on a conceptual level, but that is an important conversation as we move forward together.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you. I'll come back to you later.