Evidence of meeting #21 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was parliaments.
A recording is available from Parliament.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Madam Chair, I think I may have a proposal for Mr. Duncan that he might agree with.
Let's finish the report, and if we need an extra week—to Ms. Normandin's point—let's do so, but submit a report by the end of June. If we choose to come back in late August to review the situation at the time and then add more recommendations to the previously written report, I see no problem with that. However, let's not delay the recommendations that we can submit today, and let's leave a contingency there to say that we can meet again in late August to re-examine or review what we've done.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you for that proposal.
I think we're getting somewhere. We do have the option, the clerk has informed me, of having a one-hour committee business meeting tomorrow if you would like to hash this out further, but I do think we've made some progress.
It seems that we want to have more time. Many have raised that, but then the concerns with that are that people still want to see an end date to that time, not an unlimited amount of time.
Some proposals have come forward about perhaps the end of June, which Mr. Alghabra has just said.
Right now, I guess the first question that I should have, because we can schedule more committee business meetings, is this: Would you like me to schedule another committee business meeting for tomorrow, or do you think we can move forward with Thursday's witnesses and agree today as to when you would like that end date to be?
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Madam Chair, if we can find a compromise quickly, we may not need the hour tomorrow.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
Omar Alghabra Liberal Mississauga Centre, ON
Let's defer this question to see how the next few minutes go with the agreement—if we reach an agreement.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Is there a deadline that would be agreeable to the members, a possible deadline of an extension of one week or two weeks? Those both have come up.
2:15 p.m.
NDP
Rachel Blaney NDP North Island—Powell River, BC
I think it's important to clarify that the House will not be able to do committees between June 24 and July 3. If it's an extension, it would have to be the beginning of July.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Thank you for bringing that up before, Ms. Blaney, and thanks for reminding me of that, too. I think that is what has caused this deadline to be where it is. That's another challenge that we have.
Justin, would you like to chime in as to what challenges that might pose? Is it correct that we won't be able to have any sittings during that time?
2:15 p.m.
The Clerk
Yes, Madam Chair. It's my understanding that the system will be down for IT maintenance during that week, which would make it impossible for any virtual proceedings of our committee, any other committees and the House.
Any deadline, of course, related to when the committee needs to report back, per the House instruction of May 26, would need to be.... We need to take that maintenance week into consideration, therefore, maybe pushing a deadline back by whatever the committee ultimately thinks would be appropriate, but knowing that during that maintenance week the committee would not be able to meet virtually in order to transact any business.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
2:20 p.m.
The Clerk
Until July 3.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
That's a week and a half. That would set us out, if we want an extra week, perhaps to July 10, or if we want an extra two weeks, to July 17.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Mr. Clerk, I thought you had indicated to us previously that we're required to return a report on June 23, and if that report was that we couldn't complete the work on time and that we request more time, that we have to do that.
Does that still stand?
2:20 p.m.
The Clerk
Mr. Gerretsen, you're correct.
The House instruction from May 26 does ask the committee to report back by June 23. There's no direction as to what the content of that report has to be. For example, if the committee did choose to adopt a motion seeking an extension of that deadline, it could bring that back to the House.
2:20 p.m.
The Clerk
That's right.
June 9th, 2020 / 2:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Given that information, I don't think we have to decide right now, Madam Chair, if we need exactly one week or two weeks. I think we can just continue to proceed. There might be an opportunity to conclude by the 23rd, or at least at that point we'll know exactly what we're asking for as to whether it's one week or two weeks or.... We'll have a better understanding. I think it's premature to make the decision now as to how much time we actually need. I think it's just better if we hold off until we get to that point. I did like Mr. Alghabra's suggestion.
The last thing I'll say is that I do see a sense of urgency. Perhaps this goes back to Mr. Richards' original question as to what is the urgency. If, for example, we want to task our own people or hire a third party to make a system similar to what the U.K. did, then we might need time to do that. If we needed time to do that by the second week of September, for example, they need to build that software to be able to accommodate the request. In the interests of making sure that we give it as much time.... Depending on what we recommend, we need to make sure that we're giving enough runway to whoever needs to develop or put together the infrastructure that we might require as a result of this study.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
We need to clear the room now.
Would you like me to schedule a committee business meeting for tomorrow—at 11 o'clock, Justin?—or do you want me to just move forward with Thursday's meeting for now?
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Why don't we move forward with Thursday's meeting and then discuss this again at the end of Thursday's meeting? We might have a better sense as to where we are by that point.
2:20 p.m.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, if I could, I'll very briefly break in here. If that is what the committee does want to do, the committee has indicated possibly getting back to the witnesses on the simultaneous interpretation and asking for a written response. Is that in fact what the committee wants to do, as opposed to inviting them to appear as witnesses?
2:20 p.m.
The Clerk
I'm taking nodding as yes.
Obviously, for internationally, I know there was some expression of interest in that. There would potentially be a slot available to the committee for only one hour—60 minutes—on Friday. There would not be the possibility of inviting many people. We would also have to determine if any of those potential witnesses I mentioned earlier are in fact available on Friday for a one-hour slot.
2:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Those witnesses were the president of the European Parliament, and there was no response from them, while Harriet Harman did indicate that she's happy to appear but there was a conflict, and Spain's Parliament had a conflict. They both would like to appear. Really, at this point, we're looking at two witnesses that have said yes.