Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 4th, 2020

[Siobhan Coady]

As I said, right now we have interim supply until the end of September, so sometime towards the end of August or into September we'll have to have a budget. We'll be working with our—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Sorry, Minister Coady, but your volume seems to be a bit low. Maybe it's the volume on your computer. Could you check that? It wasn't happening when you gave your opening statement, but ever since the Q and A started, it's been on the lower side. The interpreters keep mentioning it.

[Siobhan Coady]

I'm a Newfoundlander; I will speak more forcefully.

We're getting prepared for a budget. Obviously we have interim supply until the end of September, so sometime in that time frame we'll be working with all the parties in the House of Assembly.

We anticipate at this point that we'll have ironed out.... If we're still in a pandemic situation or in a second phase of the pandemic and we cannot be physically present together, we'll have some kind of virtual hybrid mechanism. We have to ensure that the rights of members to scrutinize, to question, to consider are fulfilled. We'll find the right mechanism for that.

As we are coming through this and the chief medical officer is bringing down the alert levels, if all things remain the same, we'll be able to have the budget in the same or in a similar type of proceeding that we would normally have.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

Ms. Coady, I'd like to thank you for bringing up parliamentary privilege. It's refreshing to have a government concerned about protecting members' privileges.

I have a quick question for Minister Farnworth.

In B.C., have you talked about what happens when you come out of the special restrictions? Hopefully we don't have a second wave. Hopefully vaccines are developed quickly and we're not going to need them. Have you had discussions on how you come back to normal? Who decides that?

[Mike Farnworth]

In terms of the session, it's a sessional order, so that would govern the proceedings of the House. When that's over, we are back to our regular Standing Orders.

As for the province itself, right now we have two states of emergency: the provincial health emergency and the state of emergency that's been declared province-wide. We are developing how we're going to come out of them, because we recognize that orders have taken place under them that we may not be able to end right away. We may have to transition, and that work is currently ongoing.

[Corey Tochor, Conservative, Saskatoon—University, SK]

So the sunset clauses are built right into it. If it's just a sessional order, we know the end date. If things are changed and unfortunately for health reasons we have to go back, then opposition parties would have to agree on the new sessional orders that will govern you after these sunset clauses, correct?

[Mike Farnworth]

Absolutely, so this—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That's all the time we have. I allowed you extra time to get that last question in, but I think you got your answer for that.

Next up we have Mr. Turnbull.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thanks to all the panellists today. I really appreciate it, and I have learned a lot from everything you have shared with us so far. I have a question related to Mr. Tochor's line of questioning.

We have two government House leaders here with us today from two different provincial legislatures. It sounds to me like you are both very concerned with the scrutinizing of your government and that parliamentary privilege is something you take very seriously.

Would you say that's true, Ms. Coady?

[Siobhan Coady]

Certainly it is important that we have the opportunity to be scrutinized and questioned. That is part of the responsibilities of the legislature.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you.

Some of the work you're doing is really demonstrating the commitment to that.

Mr. Farnworth, would you agree with that as well?

[Mike Farnworth]

Absolutely, and that's why we've tried as much as possible to make sure that the session is equivalent to what a normal session would be.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Great.

I share that commitment. Obviously I'm not a government House leader, but I think our government has also demonstrated that.

I want to ask Ms. Coady some questions. I know you were already asked why the committee on procedure studying virtual Parliament kept moving forward even though you've opted to meet in a hybrid Parliament. It sounds like you've gone down that road, as you said, “in an abundance of caution”. I thought that was really great.

Were there concerns expressed by the opposition parties in your legislature around making broader sweeping changes that were permanent? Could you speak to whether you experienced any kind of push-back or whether any other parties actually agreed that you should proceed with an abundance of caution?

[Siobhan Coady]

I have had great co-operation from all members of the House of Assembly. As I said, we have the Progressive Conservatives, the NDP and two independents, and I deal directly with all of them, as House leaders and as independents, to ensure that we have clear discussions and clear common goals. To answer your question directly, the common goal is to have as much opportunity as possible to have our legislature proceed.

You're right; we took the abundance of caution approach. We made modifications to our House of Assembly so that everyone could come together, but we wanted to make sure we had the virtual platform available as well.

We do have sunset clauses on any changes to the Standing Orders based on these modifications, and that is again to ensure that we can make any adaptations or changes we feel are necessary as we transition through this.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

It makes sense. Thank you for that.

Mr. Farnworth, I'm going to go back to you for a moment. You also made temporary changes to the Standing Orders. Was there at all a concern—and I'll go to you, Ms. Polak, in a second—about these changes being more permanent than temporary, or was it made clear that these were temporary changes given the current context?

[Mike Farnworth]

It has been made clear that they're being done by a sessional order to deal with this situation.

Obviously, what we will do after this, though, is look at what happened, what worked and what didn't work. In terms of our longer-term general emergency procedures in British Columbia, we need to know what we do in the event of a natural disaster, earthquakes being a big one. In many ways, this is a test run, but changes to the rules would be done on a collaborative, co-operative basis.

In this instance, these are just for this situation.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Ms. Polak, do you want to comment on that?

[Mary Polak]

I would have every expectation that, if there were permanent changes, Mike and Sonia would certainly involve me in that discussion. We did make a permanent change to allow people to bring their infants into the chamber. That was a very collaborative process, so I have no concerns about that.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

Thank you.

I have one last question.

You said that the biggest change was around voting. You didn't shy away from that, did you?

[Mary Polak]

No, not at all, as long as everybody gets a chance to participate fairly.

Again, we're still working out the bugs on the voice vote, but as far as the roll call vote, it worked fine.

After each simulation, we're all debriefing with the Clerk and talking among the House leaders about things that didn't work and how we can tweak them. By June 22, we're going to have this running very smoothly, touch wood.

[Ryan Turnbull, Liberal, Whitby, ON]

I'm touched by the level of collaboration.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

Mr. Duncan.

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

I echo what Mr. Turnbull said. It's very nice to see the co-operative approach from your respective provinces.

Ms. Coady, I want to talk about your special committee. I have a couple of questions.

How often has your committee been meeting? Is it weekly? Is it a set schedule like ours? How does that work? Are you hearing from witnesses?

[Siobhan Coady]

We've been meeting sometimes twice a week, but most often once a week. We've had five meetings and are about to have our sixth. It's done on a co-operative schedule check of each other's calendars to see how we can fit in as much as possible.

We've been working through those issues and have not called any witnesses. These are standing orders; we haven't opened it up to witnesses. These are procedures of the House of Assembly. We've been working through each of the Standing Orders to see how we can adapt and adopt, and to allow as many people as possible to participate by virtual means, and to determine what the rules would be in the House of Assembly with the mace.

No we're not hearing from witnesses, we're just doing the work of the House of Assembly.

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

I appreciate that.

Is it in camera, public or a combination of both? How is that working?