Procedure and House Affairs Committee on July 6th, 2020

[Stéphan Aubé]

We can assume that this is, indeed, the case.

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

Thank you.

Madam Chair, I've reached the end of my questions, but I think I have about 10 seconds left.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you.

Ms. Blaney, go ahead, please.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, of course, to all of you for being here with us today. I really appreciate all of the reports that we received.

We don't know what's going to happen in the fall and we don't know what's going to happen with COVID, and so I'm just trying to clarify something. Even if we do find a safe way to vote in the House—and you've listed numerous ways—my concern still is the travelling across the country. I come from Vancouver Island and right now we've just had our airports open up again. We were having to take a ferry to get to Vancouver to fly. Often the flights are taking anywhere from a day to two days, which means that we have members not only leaving their communities but stopping along the way.

In your assessment was there any work done to look at the risks of having members travelling from across the country? The second part of that question is how long, with any of these methods, would it take to sanitize the space? If we have people queueing in the space and if we have people coming into the House of Commons to vote in different ways, do we have any understanding of just how long it would take to make those spaces safe again?

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

Those are both very good questions. The health concern is probably the biggest one, when you have members travelling from one part of the country to the other. When we look at Canada, we would probably, under circumstances in Europe or other places, have about 50 countries within that same space. We have different regions, and different regions are taking care of things differently, based on their realities. We have provinces, and we have different areas of provinces that are opening up at different rates, and that is one of the realities.

When we start moving people from one place to another, yes, that's certainly a concern that has crossed our minds We will have to rely on the health officials to make that decision, and hopefully that will be considered when the committee brings out its report.

On the other issue, when we talk about sanitizing between sittings, I talked about the block shifting, whereby a certain group would be safe in the House and it would take about three hours to go through one vote as opposed to different options otherwise. One of the main reasons it takes so long is that you bring in only so many; they vote; they leave, and then you have to sanitize everything in the chamber so that the next group coming in will have a clean and sanitized area to come through.

So there is a certain amount of time involved in making sure that everything is suitable for the incoming members.

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

Thank you.

My other question, Mr. Speaker, is around the virtual voting practice. At this point, we have 15- to 30-minute bells, depending on the vote. Based on some of the information you've given us—I believe in one of the reports, although there have been several, so I apologize for not saying which one—you identified that there were two members you were still working with in terms of connectivity for them. Speaking for myself, if I drove 20 minutes out of town here I would have no cell reception at all. In a sudden vote, I wouldn't be able to get that information. Hopefully, we have better planning around voting so that I don't do that. I understand that if I stay within this area I'm okay, but I don't know if all members have the same connectivity. I'm just wondering if that is a concern.

Of course, in our last report we did have a recommendation that if a member did not have access to appropriate connectivity to be able to vote or to participate in the House, we would identify where they had to go to get that connectivity and make sure that it was something the House of Commons supported them in doing. I'm wondering whether there has been any work done around assessing that and whether there are any members we should be concerned about. I don't expect you to tell us who those members are, but what is the strategy around making sure they have access to not only the House but also the capacity to virtually vote?

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

That is a very good point. It is a member's privilege to vote, and we don't want the member to lose that privilege or not be able to access it. Overall, things have been very good as far as access is concerned. As we said last time, we had a couple of members who were having issues. Whether they go from home or from office, there is a point where they can have access.

Maybe I'll pass this over to Monsieur Aubé. He can probably give us a lot more detail on what steps have been taken so that all members can have access to the vote and all members can have access to the Internet.

Monsieur Aubé.

[Stéphan Aubé]

Madam Blaney, over the last few weeks we have reassessed every constituency office to ensure that there is appropriate connectivity. As I commented at a previous meeting, it was true that we had two specific members in northern areas of Canada for whom this was posing a problem, but we do have solutions for them. We do have the ability to provide facilities or provide connectivity to them, if this committee so chooses. We are constantly reassessing the connectivity that exists in your constituency offices. As I said, over the last few weeks we've reassessed them and made sure that the appropriate level of connectivity is there in order to participate, if the committee so chooses, electronically for voting.

Having said that, the challenges previously were more related to the homes of the members. As you know, we provide connectivity to the constituency offices. With the constituency offices, it was a little easier for us to assess the connectivity in these areas. With the homes, we do have some good statistics for every individual member, and we certainly would have a plan to make sure it was available for them. It would be in their constituency offices most preferably, but if ever there would be a need for them to stay home, we would find a way to make this happen for them.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Aubé.

We will carry on our five-minute round with Mr. Brassard.

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

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Speaker and everyone, thank you for being here.

Let me prelude my comments by saying that the House of Commons staff has done an extraordinary and great job at keeping all of us safe and keeping the physical aspects of the building safe. I've been quite comfortable every time I've come to West Block and other areas, including to my office in the Confederation building. I want to say congratulations to the staff. If you could relay that on our behalf, I would appreciate that.

I'm not sure who these questions can go to. I'd like to start by asking whether it's correct that there have been nine sittings of the House of Commons since March 13.

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

Yes, that's correct.

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

Since March 13 the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic met 18 times in the House chamber. Is that correct?

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

Yes.

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

Since March 13 there have been four in-person meetings of standing committees. Is that correct?

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

Let me check on that one. That one is....

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

I would ask, Madam Chair, that, while the Speaker is checking, we—

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

Stop the clock.

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

Yes, if you don't mind.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Sure.

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

We were just checking. We believe there were four, and there is another one meeting tomorrow.

Many of these have taken place virtually and worked out that way, so a number of committee meetings have taken place even if they weren't in person.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

For all virtual committee meetings, there are procedural clerks, interpreters, technicians and other staff who are required to be on the Hill for every minute of every virtual committee meeting. Is that correct?

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

Yes.

Oh, wait a minute. There are cases in which they are not required here, so that—

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

There's Mr. Aubé this morning, I see.

Okay. Thank you.

Since March 13, there have been 156 virtual committee meetings, lasting some 390 hours and 20 minutes. Would that be roughly correct?

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

I don't have the stats with me. I'll have to believe you on that. I trust you've done your homework very efficiently, and I'll have to go along with you, although I can't confirm it.

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

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Now, by my calculations, there have been, since March 13, a total of 187 meetings and sittings. Are you aware of any actual COVID-19 cases associated with any of these 187 gatherings?