Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 12th, 2020

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

That's right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

However, I think Andre can go back to find out the source. Can we maybe insert that into a footnote, Andre, and make sure that the source is valid and accurate?

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

Again, I don't even know whether this resolution that was introduced has any chance of being passed—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

No, it might not.

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

If we're just putting it in, in passing, then okay. That's fine.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

When I read it, it seems as if the United States, other than what the Senate has done, is far behind in passing or making any changes—

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

You're right.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

—in comparison to the other countries, so I think that not a lot has been done. Even when we go to the provincial parliaments, not too much has been changed. I think they might be waiting for the federal government to take some steps before they do so; I don't know, but we see that it's very standard.

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

Could I ask one more question of Andre, Madam Chair?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes, sure.

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

Has the Senate started sitting again in the United States?

[Andre Barnes]

Sorry, I don't know, but I could probably find that out before the end of this meeting. It shouldn't be too hard to find out.

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

Okay, I would—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes, we can google it.

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

I don't know, but maybe we can put in the report the fact that the Senate has started or has not started sitting to consider the adoption of this resolution. It's just a suggestion, Madam Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes, we could add more information, perhaps, to make the context of where they're at more understandable. There may be some new updates.

Andre, since you're going to update the U.K. portion, maybe you can take a look at the United States to see if it is any closer to adopting anything or having any sittings of either house.

All right, so we're through the United States. We're going on to British Columbia.

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

Madam Chair, again seeking a point of clarification and to keep it updated, I'll note that in lines 17 and 18, the words “The Assembly has not resumed sittings” should be replaced. I'll note that on May 6 the premier announced the provincial reopening plan, which expressly included regular sittings of the legislature as part of the next phase, expected in mid-May. Again, if the intent, as Mr. Turnbull says, is to keep the report current, I think that should be reflected on page 20, somewhere around lines 17 and 18.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I don't know whether I should say this, but that's a change you may want to make in every section dealing with the provinces.

Andre, it seems as if you had a very standard way of writing all the provincial sections. The last paragraph regarded voting, the first paragraph was an overview, and the middle was about committee meetings or sittings of legislatures. The middle of the chunk is basically House sittings and committee meetings, and at the end you talked about voting.

Mr. Brassard, are you saying that you would like to see whether sittings have occurred or have not yet occurred reflected in each section?

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

I think what I'd like to see is a reflection of the more current information that's coming out from the provinces. I know, for example, that the legislature is sitting today in my province of Ontario, and they've announced that they're going to two sittings a week. If we're going to go through what each province is doing, I think it needs to be more reflective of the current scenario. It doesn't take much, Madam Chair. It just takes a line to reflect that.

I've gone through a whole list of the latest information. I've shared with Mr. Duncan our research on when the legislatures are going to be sitting and what the current plan is. I think a simple line at the end of—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Do you mean at the end of each one?

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

Right. It would help in the context of where we're at currently in Canada with each of the provincial legislatures and territorial legislatures as well.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay.

We'll go to Dr. Duncan and then Mr. Turnbull.

[Kirsty Duncan, Liberal, Etobicoke North, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would really like to thank Andre for the tremendous work that has been done, and to recognize that when he was asked to add in this information, he did it in a consistent manner. I really appreciate that analysis.

I'm concerned, when material has been presented in a consistent manner, that things that may or may not be liked are being asked to be removed or added. If we are going to keep it consistent, of course, when we look at opening Parliament, we are very interested in the state of the pandemic in the area. It's a very different situation across the country, and perhaps that should be acknowledged.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Go ahead, Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

My points are along the same line as those of my colleague, Ms. Duncan, who makes some great points. Contextual relevance for each province and territory becomes almost.... I think we're experiencing a snowball effect here. We had a briefing. It was consistent at the time. It wasn't originally included in the report. I think it was my colleagues from the Conservative Party who asked for those things to be included. We all agreed, and now we're asking to update them.

I want to express some concern around that in terms of consistency and point of time, and then around contextual relevance, as Ms. Duncan pointed out, which is really that all of those decisions of provincial legislatures are being made based on the specific context of the pandemic that they're in, and those can look very different across jurisdictions.

I think that's it for now.