Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 17th, 2016

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

What would be the average age of your female parliamentarians?

[David Elder]

I wouldn't know, off the top of my head. We do have quite a number of younger female members now, who are in that child-bearing age, but then we also have a number of older female members. I don't know. I haven't done the figures, I'm sorry. We could certainly look at that and provide the committee with information if you'd like.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

That would be great.

My other question is, out of your younger parliamentarians, would they be on their first term or their second term? Have they gone through one election, or two elections?

[David Elder]

Some of them would be on their first terms, and others would be on second or third terms. It would vary. Some of them are quite experienced members. As I said earlier, the interesting point is, all of those members are recontesting this current election, so that would suggest some way or other they are dealing in a satisfactory way with all the issues they have to handle in balancing young children and their lives as parliamentarians.

[Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Liberal, Moncton—Riverview—Dieppe, NB]

Great.

In the feedback that you've received from the parliamentarians with the changes that you have brought about....

Is my time up?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes.

We're going to go to Mr. Schmale, but just before we do, I want a clarification on something you said near the beginning. You talked about cars having baby seats.

Which cars are these? Is there a pool of cars for everyone? How does that work?

[James Catchpole]

There is. There's a fleet of cars based in Canberra. Members of Parliament are entitled to a vehicle, a driver and car, while in Canberra, mainly to get them to and from the airport, or to get them to wherever they're staying overnight.

It's a fleet of cars called COMCAR, which are provided by the government. They have some, what we would call “people movers”, that can take more than three or four people. They have access to child care seats. We have some stored here at Parliament House, so when a member wishes to book a vehicle, they claim that they need a child seat and that will be provided.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Mr. Schmale.

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

To go over your typical day on a Thursday, what would the calendar look like? You said that question period is at two o'clock, but how does the rest of the day shape up?

[David Elder]

We start off at 9 a.m., and we run with government business from 9 a.m. through to 1:30 p.m.

We then have quite an innovative procedure, which is called “90-second statements”. Between 1:30 and 2:00, members can make a very short 90-second statement on any subject of their choice or interest. That's a very lively and very interesting session. That's a good lead-in to question period, which happens at 2:00 p.m. Question period will run through until about ten past three.

Then each Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we have a matter of public importance, which is debated for an hour. That's usually a matter that's raised by the opposition, so between say ten past three and ten past four we'll have that matter of public importance. Then from ten past four until 4:30, we have another brief period of government business, whether it be legislation or other government matters.

Then from 4:30 to 5:00 p.m., we have an adjournment debate, and that's an opportunity for private members to raise matters for a period of five minutes.

That's how a typical Thursday would pan out.

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

I just want to say that any time that the opposition raises an issue, I think that's of utmost public importance.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

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

Ninety seconds for member statements? That's pretty impressive. That must be quite the story that goes on.

In terms of attendance, as the day goes along on a Thursday, would it thin out, or would it stay strong right to the end?

[David Elder]

It would tend to stay fairly strong right until, say, 4:30.

When the House goes on to the adjournment debate, you'll often see members starting to leave. There could be divisions in the House right up until 4:30, so members are very conscious of that. They pretty much stay around until probably 4:30, and then you'll hear them starting to depart after that.

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

In terms of when you said that you went back to Fridays and then it went away, what was the public's reaction? I recognize that there is a difference between what we have on a Friday compared to what you had, which was just private members' business.

[David Elder]

It only happened for one day, so it was a new arrangement that was introduced. The House used to sit on Fridays going back historically. There were Friday sittings, and then they changed it to this Monday to Thursday pattern. That was very much built around the members being able to return to their constituencies in good time.

I wouldn't necessarily say that the idea of Friday sittings would never be revisited. It could well be revisited by a government or a Parliament in the future. If it did so, I think it would have to be a balanced day. I think it would have to be more of a standard day rather than just focusing on private members' business.

I do think there's a very strong urge by members to get back in a timely way to their constituencies. Certainly finishing on that Thursday afternoon enables them very much to do that, which wouldn't be possible with the Friday sittings.

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

Right.

Jumping to the day care question that I touched on last time, are the hours flexible? I think what we heard from the delegations we had before is that the hours weren't flexible enough to match the time the House is sitting. Judging that it's pretty late, you go to 9:30 p.m. or 8 p.m., that's probably pretty late for a young child anyway, but in time if a situation did happen that child care is needed in the evening, is it provided or offered?

[David Elder]

The child care centre does stay open until 9 o'clock at night on parliamentary sitting days. It goes from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on a sitting day, and it goes from 8 a.m. until 6 o'clock in the evening on a normal non-sitting day. It is open and members can leave their children there if they wish.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you.

Ms. Sahota.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

For the hours of the House, are those fixed times or do you tend to have extended hours as well when there are debates late into the night? Sometimes we have emergency debates or other debates that may go until midnight. Is that the case in your Parliament as well?

[David Elder]

Very fortunately, one feature of the hours that we have now is that we very rarely have later sittings. They certainly do happen but they're quite unusual. They could be as rare as only one or two times a year now. It's really quite unusual for us to sit beyond those standard sitting times. Part of the reason for that is that we do have the flexibility of the second chamber, to be able to move some business and take some pressure off the House. It's quite unusual for there to be late sittings. If there are, we might go through until 11 o'clock or midnight. It's very unusual to have extremely late sittings these days.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

The times that you mention are quite fixed then.

[David Elder]

Yes. The times I mentioned are fixed.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

How about voting? What time of day does voting take place? Can it take place any time of the day, or is there some kind of pattern, routine, or predictability to that as well?

[David Elder]

No, there isn't any predictability. It can take place at any time and, frankly, it does take place at any time.