Procedure and House Affairs Committee on May 13th, 2020

[Some hon. members]

Agreed.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

NDP 11 is removed and “regional representation” is moved up.

We are on the last recommendation.

Mr. Duncan, you'd like to say something before we move to it?

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

I don't want to jinx it, but I want to ask Ms. Blaney if that could be removed as well and perhaps be discussed outside this report.

When we have a take-note debate, which we're required to do in the House, there could be some conversations about making permanent changes to the Standing Orders and what that process may look like. I know we are about seven a half hours in, but I think we could be talking further as the procedure and House affairs committee about how we handle that take-note debate, how we can make that worthwhile as PROC and perhaps what mechanism there is to respond to it.

I'm not opposed to it, but perhaps we can deal with that as PROC when we get back to some semblance of normalcy.

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

After seven and a half hours, yes, I will agree to that.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Therefore that suggestion no longer exists, and we have completed our report. We need to move a motion to adopt this.

Is that what you were going to say, Mr. Vaive?

[The Clerk]

Yes, Madam Chair. It was to not forget to adopt the motion at the end. I think you have the document.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes, I do. I'm quite excited to get to this point. The motion is right here.

I'm really impressed by everyone's ability to hang in there for this long and still have passion and still make their points known. I admire it from all parties. I was in a hurry to get through this, and I think Ms. Blaney made reference to that too, but at the same time I want a quality report. I know we're going to get some supplementary and dissenting opinions that will have some really good points in them as well. Thanks for advocating your positions and raising them. I thought they were all really good points.

I'm going to move that the draft report as amended be adopted, and that the draft report be entitled.... Are there any suggestions as to what the committee report should be called?

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Since we took Mr. Brassard's name out of the title, maybe we could call it “The Brassard Report” and make it up to him.

I have no suggestions.

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

I would go for that.

Madam Chair, I had to break the news to my kids yesterday that their dad's name might not be in the report, and they were really sad.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That's too bad. I know how disappointing that is to our children. It's funny; my son always says that nobody in his class cares that I'm an MP, and he's in grade 1. I'm thinking that's true. I need that dose of reality every now and then. He doesn't care what we do.

Are there any recommendations for a name for the report? There are no recommendations. Are we going to leave this up to Andre?

[Eric Duncan, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Yes.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Andre, are you comfortable with coming up with a title?

[Andre Barnes]

Madam Chair, I don't mean to pass the buck, but I think the clerk had a good title. It was the title of the study, “Parliamentary Duties and the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Maybe we can hear from the clerk, then.

[The Clerk]

It's not my suggestion per se. It was just the name that the study was given, which was “Parliamentary Duties and the COVID-19 Pandemic”. That's really just as much an administrative identifier as anything. You can choose whatever title you want.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay, we're considering the title of “Parliamentary Duties and the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

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

There is a book called Love in the Time of Cholera. If we wanted to be poetic, we could title this The House of Commons in the Time of COVID-19.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That might make it a little more enticing for people to want to read it one day.

The cover may not match what's in the book. Never judge a book by its cover, by its title, but I think the bland one is probably okay.

Is it okay with everyone?

Okay, then I move that the draft report as amended be adopted and that the report be entitled “Parliamentary Duties and the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

Should I be reading this out? Clerk, I'm looking to you on this.

[The Clerk]

Madam Chair, technically they are motions. You can sort of let the committee know what the motions are and what they say, and then the committee can agree to those. You can do them one at a time as well, if you want.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

The first one is that the report be adopted as amended.

(Motion agreed to)

Okay. Everyone was already in agreement to entitle it “Parliamentary Duties and the COVID-19 Pandemic”.

(Motion agreed to)

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

We'll do the adoption of the report not “on division” but in the modified protocol we are using instead of “on division”.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Richards.

The third motion is that the chair, the clerk and the analyst be authorized to make such grammatical and editorial changes as may be necessary without changing the substance of the report.

(Motion agreed to)

The next motion is that, pursuant to Standing Order 109, the committee request that the government table a comprehensive response to the report.

[The Clerk]

If I may intervene before the committee makes a decision on that, I just want to point out the fact that when a committee, pursuant to Standing Order 109, does request a government response, a report, once it's returned to the House, can't be concurred in until such time as the government response has been presented or tabled in the House. That is something the committee should ponder before they make a decision on whether or not they want to ask for a government response.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

We went over this before, and I'm starting to forget.

Go ahead, Mr. Richards.

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

I'm in favour of the response. That should be expected of a government in terms of these kinds of interchanges. There should be a response.

We were given a short deadline to do this. The government could certainly do so quickly if it chose as well. We should have a government response. That is only reasonable.