Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 27th, 2018

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Welcome to the 91st meeting of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. The first part of this meeting is being held in public today. Pursuant to Standing Order 81(6), we are studying the interim estimates for 2018-19: vote 1 under the House of Commons, vote 1 under Parliamentary Protective Service, and vote 1 under the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer.

Members will recall that in June 2017 the House made a number of provisional changes to Standing Order 81. As it currently stands, these changes will be in effect for the duration of the 42nd Parliament. Of note for the purposes of today's meeting is that “interim supply” was replaced by “interim estimates”. They're treated in the same manner as other sets of estimates, including being referred to and studied by committees.

For this reason, we will be pleased to have with us shortly the Honourable Geoff Regan, Speaker of the House of Commons, joined by Charles Robert, Clerk of the House of Commons; Michel Patrice, deputy clerk of administration; and Daniel Paquette, chief financial officer. Accompanying the speaker from the Parliamentary Protective Service are Chief Superintendent Jane MacLatchy, director, and Robert Graham, administration and personnel officer.

I just want to quickly do one piece of business before we go on. The subcommittee had a couple of witnesses who we have to have a budget to pay for. The subcommittee approved a budget of $2,750. We just have to reaffirm that approval.

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Good.

While we're waiting for the Speaker, I'll just remind you that on Thursday we will go over the report, which you've all received, on the debates commissioner. Then on the first day back after the two constituency weeks we will be looking at the use of indigenous languages, as scheduled. Tentatively in the first hour we would have Charles Robert, Clerk of the House, and senior officials from the House of Commons, and in the second hour we would have the first of the three MPs we've invited, Romeo Saganash. We will have a translator for him into East Cree. Then in the second hour on Thursday of that week tentatively we would have Georgina Jolibois, member of Parliament, for the first 45 minutes, and in the second 45 minutes we would have Robert-Falcon Ouellette, member of Parliament. In the last half hour we would have Bill C-377 with Brenda Shanahan and clause by clause on that, which is just changing the name of the riding, as you all know.

Are there any comments on that schedule?

John.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

Is there a reason we're having all three of the MPs on different panels rather than on the same panel?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Yes. If you don't have them separately and they want translation—two haven't asked yet—it costs extra money because you need an extra translation booth.

[John Nater, Conservative, Perth—Wellington, ON]

I knew there must have been a reason there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Is there anything else?

That's what we will go with. If it's okay with the committee, after the first questions there are some questions similar to what we were asking before related to PPS and human resources that we'd like to do in camera. Right at the end we would go in camera to do those particular security questions.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

I probably missed this part, Mr. Chair, but what's the plan? Do we shorten the meeting?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

We'll do the House and PPS right now and then after that we'll have the Chief Electoral Officer, but just a shorter time.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

How much time are we going to have for each, then?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Half of what's left.

[Blake Richards, Conservative, Banff—Airdrie, AB]

When will you cut off the current panel, then?

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Unless people want to stay later, we can cut it off between 20 and 25 after.

Let's go to the Speaker for his opening comments.

It's great to have you here, and thank you very much. We have to move quickly because of the votes.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Speaker of the House of Commons]

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and committee members.

Thank you for welcoming us here today. I am pleased to appear before you to present the 2018-19 Interim Estimates and address the funding required to maintain and enhance the administration's support to members of Parliament and to the institution.

I am joined today by the executive management team from the House administration: Charles Robert, clerk of the House of Commons, Michel Patrice, deputy clerk of Administration, and Daniel Paquette, chief financial officer.

I will also be presenting the interim estimates for the PPS, and so I am accompanied by Chief Superintendent Jane MacLatchy, director of PPS, and Robert Graham, the service’s administration and personnel officer.

As a result of an amendment to the Standing Orders, the interim estimates must now be tabled. This will provide Parliament with the information it needs to align the federal budget and the estimates.

The 2018–19 interim estimates include an overview of spending requirements for the first three months of the fiscal year, with a comparison to the 2017–18 estimates, as well as the proposed schedules to the first appropriation bill.

The House of Commons’ interim estimates, as tabled in the House, total approximately $87 million dollars.

Further to the tabling of the main estimates in the House, I anticipate that we will meet again in the spring, at which time I will provide an overview of the year over year changes, as has been the practice in previous years.

Today, I'll cover the main themes of the House’s requests for funding and priorities. The operating budget for the House covers members’ and House officers’ budgets and expenditures, committees, House participation in parliamentary diplomacy, and funding for the House administration.

The House administration's first priority is to support members in their work as parliamentarians, focusing on service-delivery excellence and ongoing modernization.

Key initiatives include the digital strategy on modernizing the delivery of parliamentary information and the implementation of the new constituency connectivity service for constituency offices, new householder formats in support of members' communications with their constituents, and optimized food services in the Parliamentary Precinct.

The renewal of our physical spaces and services provided within them is another key priority for the House administration. Public Services and Procurement Canada, the House of Commons, the team of builders and architects and senior officials are overseeing a number of large-scale projects, most notably the reopening of the restored West Block and the closure of Centre Block.

Upon the completion of the restoration of West Block there will be massive planning required to move critical activities and accommodations from Centre Block to West Block while ensuring that Parliament continues to function seamlessly.

The operation, support, maintenance and life-cycle management of equipment and connectivity elements in buildings are closely linked to the long-term vision and plan. Those key elements are essential to the implementation of a mobile work environment for members and the administration. The expected outcome is that heritage buildings are protected but refurbished with modernized technological infrastructure, a bit like this one has been.

The House of Commons and its security partners continue to collaborate on an enhanced emergency management and security approach. The institution's collective vision is the result of ongoing security awareness and education efforts.

The various groups responsible for security on the Hill and in satellite offices work together to prevent, respond to and manage disruptive events. They also build communication and awareness with all stakeholders around new physical and IT security approaches.

In keeping with evolving cybersecurity threats and information technology developments, it is imperative that the House be equipped with a robust cybersecurity infrastructure and a renewed IT security policy.

These are the current House administration priorities in support of members and the institution.

I will now turn to the interim estimates for the PPS.

The PPS is requesting access to $20.7 million in these interim estimates, which will cover regular operations and the continuation of the external video surveillance improvement project over the first three months of the fiscal year 2018-2019. Regular operations include employee salaries and operational funding required to maintain our current service levels. The external video surveillance improvement project will introduce technical upgrades to existing infrastructure and ensure better coverage of the parliamentary precinct. Funding for this project was previously set aside in the fiscal framework by the RCMP and was recently allocated to the PPS.

Following the tabling of the 2018–2019 Main Estimates, the PPS will return and explain the changes from the 2017–2018 Main Estimates.

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my presentation. My team and I would be happy to answer any questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Larry Bagnell]

Thank you very much.

What I plan to do is one round of seven minutes for each party, and the last round, Mr. Christopherson, we'll go in camera for. You can split up your round if you ant between your members any way you want.

We'll start with Mr. Graham.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Thank you.

First of all, for PPS, can I get a breakdown of which aspects the $20.7 million goes to, what goes where?

[Robert Graham, Administration and Personnel Officer, Parliamentary Protective Service]

Of the $20.7 million, $17.3 million is for operations and $3.4 million is allocated to the camera project that the speaker mentioned.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Of that operational money, how much goes to front line officers and how much to management? Can you divide it between front line officers, management, and supplies?

[Robert Graham]

I don't have the specific breakdown, but I do know that 80% of our FT count is operations, front line staff. I can return with the specifics, but it's approximately 80% of that $17.3 million.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

I would appreciate that. Thank you.

I have a quick question for you. Is there any attempt being made to look at ways of identifying RCMP officers seconded to the PPS as PPS officers?

[Chief Superintendent Jane MacLatchy, Director, Parliamentary Protective Service]

I'm not sure I understand the question.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Right now, RCMP on the Hill are part of PPS, but they're also part of the RCMP, so they show up in RCMP uniform. I'm wondering if there's any attempt—we've discussed this before—of having a PPS patch or something to identify that an RCMP officer on the Hill is PPS versus somebody from off the Hill who is not.

[C/Supt Jane MacLatchy]

There has been no discussion on that up to this point. The RCMP members who are assigned to our fourth division, they're assigned in support of PPS. They're a support service to PPS wearing the RCMP uniform as per the policy of the RCMP. There has been no discussion in terms of changing that uniform in any fashion. To my knowledge, it's not been raised with the RCMP.

[David Graham, Liberal, Laurentides—Labelle, QC]

Are we now fully staffed in terms of front line officers at PPS?

[C/Supt Jane MacLatchy]

We're pretty close.