Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 10th, 2016

[Deborah Deller]

Private members' business.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

That's because private members' business only occurs one day of the week?

[Deborah Deller]

Thursday afternoon, that's right.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Is that something members have found to be a positive thing? Obviously, for us, we have private members' business each day. By having it all together, is that something that members have typically said is a good thing?

[Deborah Deller]

We've never experienced anything but having private members' business on a single day, so they don't really have anything to compare it to. However, I think they do like it. I think Thursday afternoon ends up having a different tone to the debate. The members have guests who are there specifically for private members' business.

I think they do enjoy the fact that it is all on one single day.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

And they would they be able to leave for their constituencies earlier if they weren't attending the private members' business, because there are rarely government votes on Thursday afternoon. Would that be—

[Deborah Deller]

Yes. If any government business comes to a vote, it's almost always deferred until Monday, but on Thursday each item of private members' business is voted on.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Mr. Schmale, seven minutes.

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

Thank you very much for your comments. I appreciate your time here today for this very valuable conversation we're having.

The first question might be a little difficult for you to answer, but I'm curious, because it might lead into my next round. In terms of the amount of members who have their spouses in Toronto, do you know roughly—it doesn't need to be exact—how many that would be?

[Deborah Deller]

I am sorry, I don't know.

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

No problem.

[Deborah Deller]

Do you mean in Toronto regularly, or—

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

Through their secondary residence in Toronto. They would actually move their family to Toronto to take part in—

[Deborah Deller]

There are very few of those.

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

Okay.

Now, during this process, I spoke to a few staff members who had talked about question period being moved to earlier in the day. Many said that means their day starts early, but the end time did not change. They were actually working longer.

I see you smirking, so probably you have heard that too.

For families, I can see that for those with children, it would be very difficult to spend the morning with their child, even see them in the morning at all, if they're working as staff and have to be ready for question period right at around 10:30 or 11:00, I believe you said.

[Deborah Deller]

Yes.

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

I'm curious; with you being part of the staff, what does that do to your day, if anything?

[Deborah Deller]

That's a good question.

Look, you have to be careful, I think, when you're thinking about hours, because as I say, what suits some members doesn't suit others, and there is an impact on staff as well.

What we did was that we effectively traded two evenings a week, which was the average that the House would sit during any sitting period, for three mornings a week, three two-hour periods, that are always.... We ended up in fact increasing the number of hours that the House actually sits.

You're right, it does create this situation where the staff in and around the chamber can't just arrive right at the time that the House is scheduled to sit. They have to be there ahead of time to make sure that they're prepared, that the microphones are all working and so on. So I think for the staff, it created some issues around scheduling for us—for Hansard staff, broadcast staff, some of the clerks. They might have previously been able to come in a bit later in the morning to compensate for the later night, but now we can't do that, so we've had to alter shifts.

With all of that said, though, one of the things I said to the committee, when they were considering that here, is that we will make the adjustment to make sure the House works. The more important thing is that the House works for the members.

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

Right.

You mentioned a few things in terms of the House and said you haven't used technology well. I'm curious when you say that, because we're having constant debates on the members' calendar, in order for our staff, our spouses, our families, whomever, to see the calendar. It's somewhat of a complicated process here right now.

Can I ask how you were dealing with that? How do members share their calendars with their families and staff?

[Deborah Deller]

The parliamentary calendar is posted. I think yours is too.

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

I meant personal calendars, sorry, my apologies.

[Deborah Deller]

Really, the personal calendar of members is left up to the member and his or her staff. I think most members have a staff person who's responsible for scheduling. Many times those staffers are in communication with the member's family to make sure that they're aware of any events. Sometimes they're consulted with, because a lot of events are in the evening or on the weekend.

To my knowledge, and in my experience, the constituency staff, as well as the staff at Queen's Park, work in coordination with each other in developing the calendar. But beyond that, I would say for us, for the assembly staff, we have little or no involvement in members' personal calendars.

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

To your knowledge, are members on their own to use whatever method, like a Google calendar, so to speak, or do you have a provided calendar through your House intranet?

[Deborah Deller]

[Inaudible--Editor] calendar is Microsoft Outlook, but members are free to use any other application they want or any other calendar app.

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

To your knowledge, you haven't heard of any security issues with that or any other problems that have arisen by using just Outlook?