Procedure and House Affairs Committee on June 4th, 2020

[Siobhan Coady]

They're all in camera. We're just meeting as a group to figure out the rules of the House of Assembly so we can meet in public.

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

To build on my earlier line of questioning from the first panel we had, I'm curious on the timelines for your report.

When did the committee start, how long has it been now and when are you expecting a final report to come back to your colleagues?

[Siobhan Coady]

When it came to the House of Assembly for a decision in early May, we set a date of July 1. We will meet that date or table the report earlier. We have one final thing to solve, which is the voting issue, but we're making good progress on that. I would think within the next couple of weeks we'll have that solved and then be able to table our report.

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

At that point, you're looking at probably having taken a month and a half to two months, from start to finish.

Would that be accurate?

[Siobhan Coady]

Absolutely, a couple of months.

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

Thank you, I appreciate it.

The reason I build on that is going back to caucus involvement. I've mentioned to some colleagues my thoughts about the timelines we're under right now, and, yes, the changes we would be pushing forward would be temporary. I'm assuming you're going back to your caucus colleagues, getting feedback and buy-in at that point.

You probably can't speak for the other parties, but can you describe to me how that's working?

I will ask Ms. Polak that question as well.

[Siobhan Coady]

Again, it's about that level of co-operation and discussion. When we have a report, we bring it to our individual caucuses, or the independents review it to make sure they are in agreement with how we can progress, and then we come back as a committee and make final decisions.

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

I'm not sure if I have time for Ms. Polak, but I'll try.

[Mary Polak]

We have a committee that is organizing our COVID caucus. It's a small group of our MLAs and some staff. When there are substantive issues, we bring that back to the whole caucus.

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

I appreciate that.

Last but not least, I will ask Minister Farnworth and Minister Coady about the voting and where you're you at right now.

Ms. Coady, I'll start with you and then go to Minister Farnworth.

What options are you looking at right now in Newfoundland? You probably can't say because they're in camera going through discussions. Is it a device or Zoom, like British Columbia is doing? What's on the table? What are some of the holdbacks?

[Siobhan Coady]

For a hybrid model, if we're doing it virtually we have WebEx. That's the platform we've chosen. For procedural decisions, we're discussing whether that would be a voice vote or a hand signal button. On substantive issues, it will be a divisional vote.

There has been no determination at this point; I'll make that caveat.

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

The asterisk is noted for sure.

Minister Farnworth, on Zoom and that relationship there, how long did that process take? I take it you're happy with that. You're not looking at any other devices or anything else. You're happy with what you have there right now?

[Mike Farnworth]

Yes, we are. We're happy with Zoom. We've done a couple of trial runs now. That's why we think doing the set time each day for the votes will work.

In terms of what Mary was talking about earlier on the voice vote for the introduction, who votes aye, who votes nay, we can do a little tweaking. We're not going to if we need to do a roll call. We tried that; it takes too long, but the roll call vote for main substantive votes works just fine.

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

Thanks for the information.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

Mr. Alghabra, go ahead, please.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I want to thank our witnesses who are here, and give a special greeting to Minister Coady. It's nice to see her.

Minister Coady, Mélanie Lauzon from the whip's office says hi and wants you to know that she misses you.

[Siobhan Coady]

And I miss her.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

I want to emphasize a couple of these points we've been discussing throughout the conversation.

I'll start with you, Minister Coady. Do you agree that in order to respect the privileges of every member, an option for virtual voting has to be available, obviously respecting the public health situation under these exceptional circumstances?

[Siobhan Coady]

We've had some debate and discussion and, Omar, you're absolutely correct that, should there be a public health emergency, should there be a second wave or a requirement, we want to make sure that we, as an assembly, could come together. We want to make sure our Parliament could function. That is why, out of an abundance of caution, we are continuing to make sure that we have this virtual Parliament opportunity. You're absolutely correct, but we still believe—I think there's still a lot of debate and discussion on this—there are a lot of benefits to bringing an assembly together, including the ability to have that interconnection and discussion. We've had some discussions among ourselves on how it will be important that we find a mechanism to be able to assemble. While the virtual platform is very important to us—we want to make sure we can have it since we know there are emergencies—to make sure that we're able to come together through some means and mechanism, we also believe that the physical ability to talk to one another is important as well.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you for that.

I agree with you. I think every single MP in the House of Commons wishes we were able to go back to work the day before tomorrow, but there is the unfortunate reality of the pandemic, and therefore we have to respect Public Health's advice and maintain physical distancing.

I want to ask the same question to Minister Farnworth. I know the answer, but I want to hear you say it. Do you agree that in order to respect the public health situation and the privilege of all members the virtual voting option needs to be present?

[Mike Farnworth]

Absolutely. Because of the provincial health officer's social distancing request that we've had in this province, we've made it an important focus of our campaign against COVID-19 and it applies to the legislature. The ability and privileges of all members to vote on the business of the day are critical, and that means having a virtual ability to do that, so there's just no argument there.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

What about you, Minister Polak?

[Mary Polak]

Yes. Remember, there are safeguards that can be put in place. We decided that you are not considered present unless you are there with your video and audio. That makes you present and able to vote. In terms of being able to be recognized or to call a point of order, exclusively the chat function on Zoom that goes directly to the clerk's desk is there for members to be able to say, “I have something to say. I want to be recognized”, etc. So, there are safeguards that can be put in place, and we believe they're necessary.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

I want to note that in the House of Commons we've also had a collaborative approach with the opposition parties. The government has been working with everybody, especially on the issue of the response to COVID, and I think all Canadians are grateful for that, but I want to ask the following as well. Have you done any business other than the COVID response in your legislature yet?

We'll start with you, Minister Coady.

[Siobhan Coady]

Yes, we're about to do that. Come Tuesday of next week, we're going to go back to normal business. The order paper that we concluded with will come back again next week, so we'll be having at least the next two weeks of regular business.