Madam Chair, the concern I have with this—and I understand Dr. Raymond's testimony—is that when she was questioned about the pandemic—and I recall this, because I was the one who opened up this line of questioning—we were talking about whether social distancing measures would work, given the option of different venues and against the backdrop of the fact that, after the fire, everything moved down to the Victoria museum. We were investigating the fact that there were options that were available to Parliament to look at different venues.
In the line of questioning, Dr. Raymond spoke about not necessarily the public health issues, but familiarity issues with where the washrooms were, where people—presumably members of Parliament and staff—weren't in familiar surroundings. That's not up to the Public Health Agency to determine. That's up to the House administration to determine if there are other venues we could use in order to have a full Parliament.
I find that very curious, unless those locations have to be inspected and approved by the Public Health Agency of Canada, which again doesn't determine where we are going to be. That would be the House administration.
If we were dealing with the issue of social distancing and whether those measures in other venues were compatible with, or if they actually followed, Public Health Agency guidelines, similar to what they do now when we hold our in-House sessions every Wednesday.... In fact I think it was acknowledged clearly by Dr. Raymond, as well as by the Speaker and the Clerk, that we were following the guidelines. I don't think it's up to the Public Health Agency to decide whether we are, in fact, going to use another venue. That would be up to administrative staff. Certainly not for the reason of familiarity, it would be a public health issue.
I really find it curious in this recommendation that there is a suggestion that the Public Health Agency would dictate or determine whether, in fact, other venues are compatible with members of Parliament sitting in them. I don't know what sort of resolution we can come to on this, but I don't think the Public Health Agency is in a position to determine whether we should be using other venues.