Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 7th, 2020

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

At the beginning of the paragraph, it says that about one thousand employees are on the Hill. Do we know how many in total there are right now? A little further on, in the first paragraph of section D, it says that a virtual session requires twice as many employees as a regular one. This suggests that something may not be clear.

Do we know how many people are physically on the Hill right now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

You're correct. In this section it says that we have about over a thousand when a regular session is on.

Andre, where is the section where we're noting how many people we have now?

[Andre Barnes]

Madam Chair, I think that Madam Normandin's point is that later there is a another statistic.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Oh, yes.

[Andre Barnes]

As for her question about how many staff members are on the Hill currently, I stand to be corrected, but I believe it's 55, so I could add that to the report.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Would you like that added to the report? Okay, it's a yes. Would the current numbers be added into the report later at that section, or are you going to add them right into this section, Andre? Yes, okay, it will be what we have now and what we used to have.

Now we will go on to—

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Madam Chair—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

—Mr. Duncan and then Ms. Blaney.

Mr. Duncan, do you have your hand up from before? No? Okay.

Go ahead, Ms. Blaney.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Thank you so much.

There is one part on which I would like clarity. Because it does say that during the virtual part there are double the numbers, I want to make it really clear that when we're in the House, for example, on the Wednesdays, in person, how many there are, and on the virtual days how many, and if those people are all in the House or in Parliament, or if they're in different places. There's just a little bit of fuzziness for me there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay. Let's pass this section, and then you can clarify what you would like added when we get to the virtual part.

We're on the legal considerations, section B.i, on parliamentary privilege. I'll give everybody a couple of minutes to get through this.

Mr. Gerretsen, are you already through it? Is that what the thumbs-up is for?

[Mark Gerretsen, Liberal, Kingston and the Islands, ON]

I read it earlier. It's the definition of it. Yes, I'm good with it, thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

I have Mr. Alghabra, Mr. Tocher and Ms. Blaney. Thank you.

Dr. Duncan, you already signalled. I'm sorry, but I miss it sometimes.

I'm trying to skim again and refresh my memory so that I know exactly what you're talking about.

We've moved on from that section. Are there any comments on the second section, section B.ii, on parliamentary privilege and the courts?

Okay, I've seen thumbs-up from some people. I'm sorry, but I might have missed a few. I saw thumbs-up from the Liberals, from the Bloc, Ms. Blaney, Mr. Brassard and Corey Tochor. That's perfect.

Go ahead, Mr. Brassard.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

I have a question.

I'm being mindful of the time here. We have a hard stop at two o'clock, right? I have to leave Ottawa at that time.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That's correct.

[John Brassard, Conservative, Barrie—Innisfil, ON]

Okay, thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

We're doing quite well right now. Are we good to move on to section B.iii? Okay.

We have another meeting in which we'll have time to go through some of this, but it would be good to get through at least the ideas in this report at this point so that we're at a stage where, when our recommendations go in, we can have enough time left to discuss them in the next meeting. That would be ideal.

We're on section B.iii, quorum in the House of Commons.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I have a suggestion here.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I noticed that the “living tree” interpretation of the Constitution was mentioned later on in the report. I think the intention of this clause being interpreted within the modern context was highlighted, which I remember was pretty key in that testimony by Mr. Dufresne. I wonder if we can also reference it here in this section, which I think is extremely relevant.

In any reader's mind, they may not make the connection if they're reading that section later on. I think it would be good to have it here as well.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Andre.

[Andre Barnes]

If I may, I know exactly what Mr. Turnbull is referring to. It appears later because that's the interpretation of quorum, as opposed to just the rule of quorum itself, which is very straightforward. It was more how quorum would be looked at by the courts, and this was Mr. Dufresne's interpretation, whereas this section is just meant to say what quorum is.

However, I'm more than happy to add it there, if that's what the committee would like.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Madam Normandin.

[Christine Normandin, Bloc, Saint-Jean, QC]

My comment is somewhat along the same lines. I remember asking a question about paragraph 49, if quorum refers to members physically present in the House. We had an interesting discussion about it. Mr. Pelletier and others responded that it was more a meeting of minds. I am wondering if the question of physical presence should go there.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Andre, do you have any comments on that?

[Andre Barnes]

I could certainly add it there, yes, definitely. Unfortunately, I did not include it elsewhere in the report, so that would be a place it could go.