Evidence of meeting #7 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 42nd Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was sitting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Committee Researcher
That's more or less it, unless the committee had any other questions.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Larry Bagnell
Okay, so the committee has three reports from the researcher. He has just relayed these topics which he's just discussed: the parallel chambers, family-friendly for an inclusive Parliament, and the sitting days report that just came out this morning.
Are there any questions or discussions on any of this?
Ruby.
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
We talked a bit about proxy voting. Did you come across any jurisdictions or other provinces that do electronic voting or voting through other technological means?
Committee Researcher
I can look into that further. There are new chambers that have devolved out of the U.K. House of Commons. I want to say Scotland and Wales; I am pretty sure they have electronic voting, but let me come back to the committee on that.
Liberal
Liberal
Arnold Chan Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Mr. Barnes, I want to ask a question with respect to non-members on the floor of the chamber during a sitting. I think we do have a situation right now with a member of the New Democratic caucus. Is it a function of simply convention? I can't recall if there is an explicit rule in the Standing Orders.
Liberal
Liberal
Arnold Chan Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
Right, stranger on the floor, and that could be challenged by another member as a breach of a member's privileges. I know we've been turning a bit of a blind eye to it, but I'm simply mindful of the fact that we are increasingly likely to have circumstances as we have right now. Has any jurisdiction ever tackled the issue of strangers on the floor of Parliament at all? I know you mentioned it with respect to the Canadian context, but in your research did you encounter this discussion coming up in any other jurisdiction?
Committee Researcher
In terms of any stranger on the floor, are we thinking more specifically of a child—
Liberal
Arnold Chan Liberal Scarborough—Agincourt, ON
I'm specifically thinking of toddlers and children and nursing mothers. That's primarily my concern.
Committee Researcher
Because there is a big distinction between creating a disturbance.... There is a reason the rule exists. The Australian House of Representatives has recently amended their definition of what constitutes a “visitor” to exclude infants being cared for by a member, because that happened very recently. In reading the newspapers, I see that in the U.K. they've asked members what they think about that. From what I gather, they didn't seem too keen on going down that road themselves. As far as I know, most jurisdictions, by tradition, have that in place.
The issue—and this was mentioned in the report produced by the procedure committee in Australia—is that a lot of jurisdictions turn a blind eye to a toddler on the floor, but it is the right of any member in the House to stand up on a point of order and put the Speaker in the position of having to rule on it at that very moment. It is mentioned in the report that one of the reasons they amended the definition of “visitor” was to save the Speaker from having to be put in that spot.
February 16th, 2016 / 11:45 a.m.
Liberal
Liberal
Ruby Sahota Liberal Brampton North, ON
I'd also like further clarification on the parental leave and the child care as we have it right now in Parliament, and on comparing that to other jurisdictions. We briefly touched on the fact that we don't have child care leave or leave when the child is sick. For that matter, if one of our members or senators is due to give birth during sitting days and not over the summer, what do they do? What has been done in the past? I don't know.
For one member we have right now in the NDP, I think we all notice that she's having to deal with having a child while serving as a member, and it's quite complicated and difficult. As we discussed, the day care does not accept children under the age of 18 months, so what do parents do when they find themselves in that situation? It was mentioned that New Zealand had a baby boom. I think that currently we have males and females here who are expecting children within this year. We can't keep ignoring this problem. How are we going to deal with it? With younger and younger members serving, we have to look at this now rather than wait until we come across it.
Have you come across any research? What's been done in the past?
Committee Researcher
I could look into other jurisdictions. For here, I can say what remuneration and pay and benefits are provided for by statute to members. There are a bunch of human resource benefits that members are granted by virtue of being a member and that I'm not privy to; I could discuss that with House of Commons human resources to see what sort of pay and benefits are accorded to members. Some of it I know is certainly set out publicly in statutes. Some of it is like a human resource...it's a job, it's almost a private matter.
But as far as I know, there is no parental leave for members in this scheme, or maternity leave or paternity leave, for that matter.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
I see by this report that parental leave is only half the battle. If you take a month off from being an MP, your life expectancy as an MP will shorten by more than a month.
Liberal
David Graham Liberal Laurentides—Labelle, QC
My other comment is in response to Arnold's point about strangers on the floor. As I recall, Sheila Copps was the first MP to have her child with her on the floor of the House of Commons. The order they used to try to stop it was to say that you shouldn't eat on the floor of the House of Commons, which I thought was a rather obscure way of putting it.
What power do we as PROC have to make changes? What are the limits of our own ability to effect change?
Committee Researcher
The committee can make any recommendation it would like in a report to the House and ask the House to adopt the report.
Committee Researcher
Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, as the clerk notes, that's within the committee's mandate.