Evidence of meeting #10 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was panel.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
11:50 a.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it's lovely to see you, even in this virtual reality. I want to totally support some of my colleagues in thanking the amazing interpreters, all the IT people and the staff who are making this happen. We have to check in a little early just to get things done, and I just want to express my deep appreciation for their adaptation to this very changing world that we're all experiencing.
Mr. Speaker, you talked earlier about your response to the government House leader, talking about what a virtual Parliament and the timeline could look like. You talked about setting up a group, so I'm wondering if you could tell me what roles are in that group and from what department, how they are reporting back to the Speaker, and what access the rest of the parliamentarians have to that information.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
Basically, I've left it with the Clerk and discussed it with the administration to see what we're capable of, leaving it mainly with the IT department to check into what can be done. It's very favourable on that end, their looking at it and saying, “Okay, four weeks was a reasonable amount of time to come up with a solution.”
Is it going to be perfect? As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure and neither is the administration, but we can have something that will be functional.
One of the areas, as far as the Clerk and the administration go, is the Standing Orders and how we continue to respect the individual members' privilege and rights under section 48 and the Standing Orders. We want to make sure of what exactly is implied or expected for a quorum and what is expected for the rules. One of the things that have come up, and is going to be a challenge, is that in order to make changes and have the Standing Orders rearranged or done differently, we have to have everyone present at one time—or whoever wants to be—in Parliament. That's something that I'm not sure how to deal with at this point. We are exploring the possibilities. However, when you look at parliamentary privilege, it is the individuals' having the right to at least vote or take part in discussions that are going on in Parliament to change the existing Standing Orders. We can't just arbitrarily say, “We're going to make those changes,” and that's all there is to it. We have certain procedures that we have to follow. That's going to be one of the biggest challenges.
Everything has been opened, as far as the information that we have. There's nothing that is being kept.... It's open to members upon their request. A lot of it has been put out there as well.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you.
The Standing Orders and the modifications that would be required is a very important conversation. Look at the fact that today when we called in for this committee, with nowhere near 338 members of Parliament, plus all of the folks attached, we were on the call half an hour.
One of my questions is this: What considerations are happening around parliamentary privilege? How are we addressing that, understanding that different ridings have different levels of connectivity? Is there a plan to look at members' homes and their offices?
The other part is looking at ways to address issues. A few weeks ago, we had a massive power outage in our area for four hours. That meant that there were a lot of things that I couldn't do. When it comes to parliamentary privilege, has there been any discussion about how to address the connectivity aspect and these acts that happen that we have no control over? How will those be managed?
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
As far as connectivity goes, that is one of the major discussions that is taking place when we're looking at a virtual sitting. The administration, as well as MPs, is concerned about that. Connectivity, especially if you're from a rural riding, really affects how much participation you might have as a member of Parliament. That is one of the key ones.
As far as individual members go, what the administration has been doing is spending time with each member. I notice that you have a headset. I don't know if that was sent to you or whether you had it yourself.
11:55 a.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I come from one of those rural ridings. We have these.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
What has happened with a lot of members is that the administration has sat down with them and gone through it, checking their equipment to make sure that everything is working and that everything goes smoothly when these meetings take place. This is something that is being considered very closely and very seriously.
With regard to the power outage, I'm not sure what to tell you on that one. That's something that's very local, but it is very much an issue.
One of the other issues that have come up is that the staff have been checking in with members, making sure that everything runs smoothly. Then, lo and behold, the members can't make it to the places where they have their equipment, so they're on a phone or an iPad or some other device, and suddenly everything gets changed. I'm not sure about the control of that, but those are some of the variables that also have to be considered when an individual member is attending a meeting. It's in the training and the time spent with the IT staff and the members, making sure that they're up to par.
Noon
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
What I was talking about, with the power outage, was really about parliamentary privilege. Through the House a lot of times people are interrupted in their ability to vote, so how do we manage these things that are beyond that?
Thank you.
Noon
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
It's time for the second round of five-minute questions.
Up first is MP Brassard.
Noon
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Mr. Speaker, we appreciate your being here and the Clerk as well. As you know, the motion that was introduced yesterday was a rather long one, and we dispensed. I know that you appreciated that, but there are some challenges with respect to the motion, one in particular that I want to address to Mr. Robert.
In the motion adopted in the House yesterday, there's something that's very interesting and quite frankly should be very concerning to all members of Parliament with respect to their privilege, because buried as a provision in subparagraph (v) of paragraph (h), it says that the participation in the virtual QPs we're going to be having would be subject to limits set by House administration. Effectively, these would be set by you, Mr. Robert. A majority in the House voted for that. Obviously, we didn't, but a majority did without knowing what those limits might even be.
Can you explain, Mr. Robert, what exactly these limits will be?
Noon
Clerk of the House of Commons
Yes. Thank you.
Mr. Brassard, as the Speaker explained, the resources that we have available to implement a virtual sitting, both for committees and now for the special committee on COVID-19, are fairly limited. When the Speaker replied to the government House leader as to how we could put in place a full virtual meeting of the House, we indicated that we would not be able to do that much before the middle of May.
The House, in its motion yesterday, decided to create a special committee on the COVID-19 pandemic, where in fact its membership is the entire House. You're going to be having your first virtual meeting next Tuesday. Under the explanations that we have already provided, we do not believe that we will be in a position to allow the special committee to meet with the entirety of its membership. That is beyond our capacity. We were trying to signal that, and I suspect that, when this motion was drafted, they took into account the warnings we had raised.
Noon
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
How many members do you expect to be participating in these virtual QPs? How will the choice be made in asking questions of the Prime Minister and the ministers? Who will be making those choices?
Noon
Clerk of the House of Commons
My guess would be that we would be trying to coordinate this as much as possible with the whips, so that there is a comfortable coordination of the membership so as to satisfy their requirements, given the limitations that we will have in terms of how many.
I think in this meeting we have about 30 participants. We will be able to up that for the meeting next Tuesday, I would suspect, but it will be far short of the entire membership of the House. We will try to coordinate that with the whips.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Okay, thank you.
Mr. Speaker, I have a question with respect to an article that appeared in The Hill Times on April 9, where you were quoted as saying that you were instructed to look into holding virtual sittings. Was that a mischaracterization, because the Speaker is not to be instructed by anybody? I would just like clarification on that, Mr. Speaker.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
I was asked to look into it, and that's exactly what we're doing. I was not instructed.
12:05 p.m.
Liberal
Anthony Rota Liberal Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON
That was in the letter from the government House leader.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Okay.
Mr. Robert, have you had any discussions with the government House leader with respect to virtual sittings? Have you been instructed or asked at any point during this process?
12:05 p.m.
Clerk of the House of Commons
No, but in any sort of conversations that have taken place, the caution that I've already expressed to you about our capacity to provide this service within a timeline that was different from the response that was provided by the Speaker to the government House leader has been raised.
12:05 p.m.
Conservative
John Brassard Conservative Barrie—Innisfil, ON
Thank you.
Gentlemen, we have a limited time to deal with this issue. We've been asked to provide a report by May 15. We have, effectively, five days. We've extended the hours. We're going to hear from several witnesses. On the back end of our mandate, would you both be willing to come back and address any other issues that might come up from a legal, security or procedural aspect?
Would either of you gentlemen be willing come back at the end of our study to address some of those issues?
12:05 p.m.
Liberal