Evidence of meeting #11 for Procedure and House Affairs in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was pandemic.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
No, I don't have it in front of me. I just want to know how much was on it for these free lunches.
Conservative
Todd Doherty Conservative Cariboo—Prince George, BC
The total is $6,000 for the budget as a whole. It's $750 for the working meals.
The Clerk
Madam Chair, I could provide further explanation for that. Since the committee has moved into hybrid sittings, we have had two or three members showing up in person, so the meals that have been ordered have ranged from about three to four meals per meeting for those members. There is a unit cost associated with each of the catering orders, which is the minimum that the House budgets for. However, I can also assure you that the actual unit costs that are being charged to the committee are significantly less, and that generally the meals are consisting of sandwiches, a drink and a little side order of vegetables.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Yes, this is a much smaller budget than we generally ever pass in committees when we're—
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Can I say something, Madam Chair?
I think it's harder to get your attention in person, which is what I'm learning.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
It is. That's what I was saying at the beginning too. I wish everyone who's present in the room had an individual camera, because it's really hard to see gestures there.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
Next time I'll come and sit here and put Zoom on my computer.
I am slightly offended by the fact that Mr. Doherty was here with us two days ago, but now he's not. Mr. Lukiwski thinks I scared him away, but—
Conservative
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
In all seriousness, what I can say is that the lunches provided are basically exactly the same as what we would get if we were to go into the cafeteria room they have for us in West Block. Anybody who's done this would know that, I guess.
Conservative
Karen Vecchio Conservative Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON
As part of this discussion, I understand the meal concerns, and I think if we actually look at it, let's be honest, I am probably one of the people who eats the lunch the most because I'm there so much of the time. I do enjoy my ham and cheese sandwiches, but I don't know if everybody should have to pay for that. As Mark mentioned, there is food available to us, so if we're done at one o'clock, we can still get food. That might be something we want to contemplate. I recognize it's only $750, but I don't know if it's up to the committee to pay for two or three. I do thank everybody for paying for my lunches for the last few weeks, but I don't know if it's up to the committee to pay for everybody when there are just two or three of us there all the time.
I just wanted to put that into a point. Thank you.
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
To be honest, I was raising it more like if I wasn't here, I'd be getting the exact same thing across the street and it wouldn't be coming out of the committee's budget. I don't understand the logic behind the committee having to pay for the exact same thing that I would get across the street. I'm on House duty right now, and I'm also here, I could literally be.... I don't want to belabour the point because I realize that it all comes from the same bag.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Anyway, we have to pass the budget that's before us now. I think when it comes to the meals, someone is always paying. At the end of the day, it's all coming from the same place. It just gets divided into different budgets.
Yes, Mr. Tochor.
Conservative
Corey Tochor Conservative Saskatoon—University, SK
On a point of order, I would make the motion that we remove the free lunches. Someone has to pay—it's the taxpayer. There are people going bankrupt across Canada, and we're talking about free lunches for parliamentarians. I get it that there's another place for free lunches for parliamentarians. We don't have to have additional resources. Take care of the nickels and dimes, and the dollars take care of themselves. Yes, it's only some $750. I would ask that it get removed from the budget.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
Okay.
I guess what I was saying was that if you went to get that free meal in the lobby, the taxpayer would still be paying for that lobby, so you're just shuffling where it's coming from. Just so we're completely transparent, parliamentarians do get free meals in the lobby when they're on House duty, so it's still coming out of the budget somewhere.
Mr. Therrien.
Bloc
Alain Therrien Bloc La Prairie, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I had already raised the point my Conservative colleague just brought up. I agree with him. However, I must say that Mr. Gerretsen is right. In other words, regardless of where in Parliament we were, we would have had access to free lunches. Ms. Vecchio, among others, and I were there once. We ate the same thing we would have eaten if Ms. Vecchio, Mr. Gerretsen and I had stayed in our offices.
Honestly, I think the situation is in no way problematic. I don't know whether you are understanding me correctly, but I really don't see any issues here. However, I do believe that the total amount is problematic, as it is high. Is the parliamentary cafeteria asking for that amount? I don't know whether it is, but I think the amount is a bit high, considering what we eat. As I already said, we eat what we would have eaten at our office.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Ruby Sahota
How do we go about this? I think there are slightly different views on the same thing. We could vote to—
Conservative
Liberal
Mark Gerretsen Liberal Kingston and the Islands, ON
I'm happy to vote in favour of Mr. Tochor's motion.
I know we had this discussion when we resumed in September. We raised this point, but we decided to continue paying for them. Then, ironically enough, when I subbed in on another committee that was doing the same thing, members were saying that PROC did this and PROC did that, but we hadn't suspended them.
I'm happy to vote in favour of it, but to Mr. Therrien's point, I don't see how voting to remove them really affects anything, because the exact same thing is available across the street. If we're doing this for the purpose of signalling the importance of it and, to Mr. Tochor's point, of counting the dimes and nickels so we don't have to count the dollars, then I'm happy to support it.