Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 15th, 2016

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

That's great. Thank you. That's what I was seeking, and I appreciate that. I realize, Speaker, that there are no guarantees. Things can happen, but you can appreciate—and I know you're very sensitive to these things—that it gets frustrating when you've been around here long enough to see that it keeps happening over and over.

Thanks very much to both of you. I'd love it if we didn't have to revisit this. That would be great.

The last question is a hypothetical. If a member has personal security concerns and they approach PPS, what can they reasonably expect from PPS in terms of a response, just in general? Is it only security here on the Hill and when you're in your constituency office....

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

The first thing is that the route for a member to take is actually not to approach the PPS. It is to approach the Corporate Security Office led by the Sergeant-at-Arms.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

Okay, and if one does that...?

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

If one does that, then I suppose it depends on whether the security measures or issues that the member is concerned about are on or off the Hill. If they're off the Hill and they relate to the work of the member, then I would expect the CSO to clearly communicate with or contact those police services that would be responsible in whatever area that was.

Let's say it's a constituency office. In that case, maybe it's a local police service in the town or city that the person is in that you want to consult to make sure that the services there are watching things and are aware of the concern that's raised. In each case, though, they have to decide what are the reasonable steps to take, in the same way that there are threat assessments done at various times in relation to public officials. If there is a significant threat, then appropriate measures are taken. That's what I would anticipate.

Am I off base in any way, Mike?

[Supt Mike O'Beirne]

No, Mr. Speaker. That's fine.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Is there anything else that I should have added but didn't?

[Supt Mike O'Beirne]

No. Certainly, I won't speak for the CSO, but once those linkages are made with the police of the jurisdiction, then, of course, the threat-risk assessment is effected and the measures are put into place.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I should have probably turned to Pat, from the Sergeant-at-Arms office. I could, if you'd like.

[David Christopherson, NDP, Hamilton Centre, ON]

No, that's fine. It was a hypothetical. I wanted to get it on the record. Thank you.

Thanks, Chair. I'm good.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you. We have two more members to hear from.

We'll ask that you respect the Speaker's time and keep your questions as brief as possible.

Ms. Petitpas Taylor is next, and then Mr. Schmale.

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

Thank you so much, all of you, for being here today.

Very briefly, on your budget handout—I recognize that it's very brief—my question is, do we have a breakdown of overtime for our PPS people? The reason I ask is that we're always trying to promote wellness and workplace balance, and I'm wondering what that looks like when it comes to our PPS personnel.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Go ahead, Mike.

[Supt Mike O'Beirne]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Perhaps I can speak to that. Certainly, the issue of overtime has been at the forefront of our considerations. There are several reasons for that. Following the events of October 22, there were some changes in postures that were effected. This resulted in positions that had not been in place prior to that, so they resulted in an overtime position.

These have carried through following June 23, 2015. Following the creation of the PPS, the partners that came together were operational in nature, and that positioned the PPS to have to create its infrastructure. What I mean by that is its HR support and the financial support needed to permit the entity to continue its transition.

There have been some unbudgeted special events. One was the visit by the President of the United States. As well, certainly, one of the impacts is that we have to be very responsive to the LTVP projects that are presented. The challenge, of course, is to keep our hiring and retention mechanisms in pace with that. We're certainly mindful of 2018 and the LTVP projects that are going to be presented at that time, and we are looking at resourcing in a way to respond to that.

That said, your point about employee wellness is certainly at the forefront of our consideration as well. We're very mindful of that. To that end, we've incorporated some mechanisms in the PPS for employee wellness, for both physical and mental health. Some of them are mental health awareness initiatives. Others are physical health initiatives. We've created a position that oversees that development within the PPS.

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

Do we have a breakdown, though, of how much overtime we've incurred?

[Supt Mike O'Beirne]

For the breakdown, perhaps I'll turn to my colleague.

[Sloane Mask, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Parliamentary Protective Service]

This year, we've incurred about $2 million in overtime costs. This is very comparable with the results under the previous tenure of the Senate, House, and RCMP.

As Mike and Mr. Speaker have both mentioned, the 42nd session of Parliament has been quite a hectic session. We have had some additional overtime incurred in order to be able to support the events and ensure the safety and security of all our guests. Going forward, we're very mindful, as the Canada 150 celebrations are being launched, of the need to keep a close eye on overtime and employee wellness, and certainly that is a priority.

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

Thank you.

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Blake Richards]

Thank you.

Our final question today will come from Mr. Schmale.

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

Thank you, Chair.

I have two quick ones.

First, a few months ago, we did a tour of the West Block construction, and part of that tour included the new chamber. What we noticed—and it has been brought up at this committee before—is that there is a series of windows that look right down onto this new chamber. Obviously, if someone wanted to do harm, they'd be in an elevated position, and they'd have clear access to all parliamentarians.

I'm looking for a comment, but if you don't have one, maybe you could put that on your radar as an ongoing concern that has been raised here before. We are—or at least I am—a little wary. This is something that we all noticed.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

You'd be interested to know that the windows will be opaque, which should help somewhat.

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

Okay.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Theoretically, somebody could break a window, obviously, but then you'd hear it and people would react.

Obviously, first of all, we don't want anybody who's a threat getting into the building. That's why we have the security systems we have and which we will have over there. I think what's better is to take what you're saying as a comment and a suggestion. Thank you.

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

The second one, really quickly, is under security enhancements. You sought “temporary funding of $4.2 million” for the next fiscal year and you say, “The CSO has been facing increased demands for its services, including in the areas of accreditation, security clearance, events, and visitor access services...”. Is that because security is a little more enhanced? Is that where this is coming from? How does that compare to previous years? I'm assuming that everyone had to go through some sort of clearance to get into the building before now.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

I'm going to ask the clerk to answer that.

[Marc Bosc]

Essentially, Mr. Schmale, this comes from the set-up of PPS a little over a year ago. At that time, it had to be done fairly quickly, so very quick decisions were made as to which unit would go and which unit would stay and so on. After that has all shaken out, we're now in a situation where we can properly assess the needs on both sides.

What we discovered on the Corporate Security Office side was that basically we'd given too much away. We need to bring up those levels of resources, especially for accreditation, but there are other areas as well where it's insufficient, plus, demand has gone way up. We're more vigilant in terms of looking at access. All of that combined resulted in a greater need for resources.