Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 4th, 2020

[Stéphan Aubé]

Yes, they did, sir.

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

They did. Okay.

This question may not be for you. If you're the best-qualified person, fine; if not, whoever is can go ahead and jump in. I heard that the Board of Internal Economy met last week, I think, and used Skype. It was apparently a pretty convoluted arrangement. Some of the participants had to use two different devices simultaneously to be able to participate. I'm wondering why Zoom wasn't used as a platform, like we've been using in the committees, and why that was chosen instead.

Would that be a question for you?

[Stéphan Aubé]

I can answer, sir, if you want.

Mr. Speaker, would you like me to answer this?

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Maybe I'll just start off and then hand it over to you.

The meetings we have right now are public meetings—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Please go quickly.

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

Okay.

Mr. Aubé, I'll let you finish it off. You will have all the technical—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

You can have 20 seconds.

[Stéphan Aubé]

Because of the nature of the debate during these types of meetings, we did not assess Zoom for that particular profile of risk and threat tolerance level. This is something that we will be doing in the future. Skype for Business is within our infrastructure, and we felt that we wanted to use that.

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

What does that then do for in camera meetings of committees?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That's all the time we have.

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

How would we deal with an in camera situation?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

We'll have enough time to maybe go a little bit further, so you might be able to get that question in.

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

Thanks, Madam Chair. It is a pretty important question.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Absolutely.

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

I do hope we have a chance to understand how we'll deal with in camera sessions if we are going to use this.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Perhaps it will come up with one of the other questioners. I have given so much leeway, I feel that's all I can give now.

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

That's fine. I appreciate that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Next up is Mr. Alghabra.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I want to thank the Speaker and the others who are present today.

Mr. Speaker, I have a question for you regarding the Standing Orders. Obviously, if we want to move ahead with virtual sittings or further advance our virtual sittings, we need to change some of the standing orders. Is it possible to create a category of standing orders that would only be triggered under an emergency or a special situation rather than changing our traditional Standing Orders?

[Anthony Rota, Liberal, Nipissing—Timiskaming, ON]

I'll defer this one to our Clerk, who has a very in-depth knowledge of the Standing Orders. He can answer this in probably more depth than I can.

Monsieur Robert.

[Charles Robert, Clerk of the House of Commons]

Mr. Alghabra, the simple answer is yes.

Again, it really depends on what the House chooses to do through this committee. If you feel that the pandemic crisis we are confronting now requires some consideration for the possibility that it could come again, that may be an opportunity for you to package some rules and practices that would be triggered by the event arising, and then allowing the House to function in a way that would respect social distancing and allow as many members to participate...bearing in mind health safety concerns.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Yes, I'm thinking that a lot of the provinces and municipalities and even the federal government have things like a state of emergency, and once you declare a state of emergency, it triggers certain rules. It's good to know we have that option.

The other question I have is about the rules for changing the Standing Orders. Does it require unanimous consent?

[Charles Robert]

Not historically, no.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Then a simple majority of parliamentarians can change the Standing Orders?

[Charles Robert]

Yes, indeed.