Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 2nd, 2020

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

As things stand now, does this mean that the parties would need to unanimously agree on an electronic platform, or would this decision be made by a majority vote, if the rules of procedure don't include anything about this?

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

An amendment to the Standing Orders requires a majority vote. So the majority makes the decision.

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

Perfect.

I want to ask a question about rising to speak in the House. I already pointed out that, if I speak French after turning on the French channel, for example, my voice may be lower and the Speaker may not hear me. The Speaker may hear people who are physically present better than people who are online.

Would it be a breach of parliamentary privilege if we were to say that, in a hybrid Parliament, everyone must raise their hands electronically only?

To your knowledge, would it be a breach of parliamentary privilege to ask that everyone have an equal opportunity to request permission to speak?

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

Again, the House must make this decision. Neither the Speaker nor the administration can make this decision. For example, if the committee's report states that things should be done this way and the report is tabled in the House, the House must decide by majority vote how to proceed.

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

My question is more about whether, to your knowledge, it would be a breach of parliamentary privilege to tell members in the House that they can't speak to request recognition and that instead they must raise their hands electronically.

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

If the House decides on this rule, it wouldn't be an issue. Again, the House must make a decision. If the House agrees, then it will be acceptable.

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

Perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Next up is Ms. Blaney, for two and a half minutes.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

One of the things we've been discussing is around distance voting and that there should be an incremental approach. I wonder if the Clerk and the House office has done any work on what that might be like. What might the first step be in terms of moving towards voting from a distance?

Also, I've heard you mention a secret ballot. I wonder where that idea is coming from. I don't recall, except when electing the Speaker, that in the House of Commons we have any secret ballots. It's certainly not something I'm comfortable with.

If you could speak to those two things, I would appreciate it.

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

The secret ballot happens under two circumstances, if I'm not mistaken. I'm looking to the Clerk for confirmation. Yes. One is, of course, for the election of the Speaker, and the other one is for private members' business.

I'll hand it over to Mr. Gagnon, who will be able to answer that much better than I will, because it happens so rarely. It's only happened once to me while I've been here, since 2004, with a slight interruption in 2011.

Mr. Gagnon.

[André Gagnon]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Ms. Blaney, yes, election of the Speaker and also an appeal of the Procedure and House Affairs decisions regarding private members' business are types of situations where there can be a secret ballot.

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

Thank you so much.

I would like to go back to the original question: Is there a thoughtful plan? Have you done any work in your role around voting and the incremental steps that we might take?

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

Yes. If you look at all the work that's been done to date, it's basically been done with the view of seeing about what we can add next and what is comfortable as well as what is feasible. Doing something that's feasible but we're not comfortable with is not something that we want to rush into, because you want to make sure that members of Parliament are able to do their jobs in a way that they are not threatened.

Those are the two main areas, but yes, we are progressing gradually, and we are open to pretty well everything that's out there that's happening in the House. When we did our hybrid test, we tried so many different things, everything from voting to bringing up a point of order, and it was all handled very well.

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

Sorry, Mr. Speaker, but what was the model of voting? Could you just tell us what was practised in that process?

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

I have to refresh my memory. It's been a while.

We did the voice vote, yeas and nays, so no, we did not do the actual voice vote. If we do bring it back, I would expect that we would have whatever model is suggested. It would have to go through a test run to make sure that it works well and that it is something that would be secure and something that we can trust.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I allowed some extra time for you to be able to finish up your thought there.

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

It's much appreciated.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

We do have a little bit of extra time. I'm throwing this out to the committee members.

It is going to take a process of about 10 to 15 minutes to switch to in camera, so even though we have extra time, I'm of the mindset that we cut off this portion of the meeting and switch to in camera. We are going to have most of the House administration still here with us; it's just the Speaker who we will be missing. Then we can continue on.

At the end of the meeting, hopefully, if we have enough time, I want to discuss our work plan so that all the parties are on board for the meetings going forward, so we will suspend.

Clerk, could you explain just a little bit to the members how to go about proceeding in camera?

[The Clerk of the Committee, Mr. Justin Vaive]

Yes, Madam Chair.

The members of Parliament who are currently on the Zoom meeting can just stay where you are connected and, in the meantime, we will start getting on board the authorized people who are permitted to be in the in camera portion of the meeting.

As the Chair indicated, it should take us approximately 15 minutes to do that. We do have another witness who will be joining the meeting as well, so we have to get him on board.

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for being here today. Maybe at the end of the study, we might need to have you back, but the committee will determine that, and, hopefully, you will be able to make yourself available. We really appreciate your being here.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair. It's a pleasure, as always, to be here with you and the committee, and I'm looking forward to the report.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

With that said, we will suspend. We will try to be back on in 10 minutes.

[Proceedings continue in camera]