Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 9th, 2017

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

They were guessing at that time I imagine, because at the end that person told me they would ask for more details.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Was this the driver on the bus? No, it was the actual officer on the ground who you had walked up to.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

It was an official on the ground.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

We weren't on a bus, we were in the bus shelter.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

They had allowed you to get out there.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

No, we were not on the bus at all. We just approached from the road. We came across from Confederation and there's a little bus shelter on the bottom of the hill. So we were not on a bus. That's why we were able to escape and make our way to the House because we weren't held on the bus.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I'm confused. So at no point were you ever on a bus.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

No.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

No, we were trying to get on the bus. We wanted the bus to come and pick us up at the bus shelter across from Confederation on the Hill.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Yes, understood. That bus shelter is right in front of the VSF area.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

That's right.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Okay.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

What I did is I crossed the street to go see an official and ask what's happening.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

Where were you arriving from before you got to that bus shelter? What was your previous engagement?

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

I was at a meeting and stopped off in an Uber at the bottom of the Hill on the corner where the Confederation Building is and Wellington.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Before that I was in my office in the Confederation Building.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

So you were waiting for a bus and the bus hadn't arrived because the buses couldn't get through and then you walked up.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

The buses were there but we didn't know why they were not coming through.

[Ruby Sahota, Liberal, Brampton North, ON]

I understand.

This has clarified quite a lot for me because I thought that you weren't allowed off a bus. It was being delayed at the time.

I'm going to share my time with Ms. Tassi.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Thank you both for being here today.

We're trying to think of prevention, how to stop this from happening. When you got to that bus shelter, you thought you had sufficient time to get to the House if a bus were to pick you up.

[Lisa Raitt, Conservative, Milton, ON]

Yes.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

Then you looked over and you saw they were being stopped there. So at that point you walked over to the security person, and I presume you said you were a member of Parliament and needed to get to the House.

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

I asked him why we were waiting and why the buses were not going through.

The official told me he thought it was because of the Prime Minister's motorcade but he wasn't sure; he'd ask. The official spoke to an RCMP officer at the time but I left. Time was running on, and we decided to walk to Parliament.

[Filomena Tassi, Liberal, Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas, ON]

How long did that take from the moment you stood at the bus and looked over and said they're not coming through?

[Maxime Bernier, Conservative, Beauce, QC]

Maybe two or three minutes.