Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Nov. 24th, 2020

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Mr. Aubé, do you have an expectation of a date when that's going to happen?

[Stéphan Aubé]

We don't have a commitment for a date, yet. I would leave that to different parties to make that decision. From a readiness perspective, we're almost there. We're just waiting for these decisions to be made. As soon as they're made, we'll be able to engage all the members from the different parties, if they decide to go forward, sir.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you very much.

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

If I could just chime in on that.

The IT department, under Mr. Aubé, has been very visionary and has been planning to accommodate whatever the members of the House really want to do. As soon as somebody mentions something, they fall into place and do their due diligence to see what can be done. They've been very effective on having everything ready should the membership of the House decide to go that route.

I just wanted to compliment them and recognize their hard work and diligence in making sure that everything is there for us when we, as the House, decide.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Thank you for saying that, Mr. Speaker.

I can attest to this. I had to change my entire hardware at the constituency office to make sure that we had House-managed devices. My team and I went through a smooth transition period. It was done quickly and proficiently. Again, thank you.

Mr. Speaker, this is may be a question for you or for the Clerk. One of the issues we're having to deal with today because some of the cleaning requirements is availability of meeting rooms. There were times when we used to book a meeting room right after another meeting and now we are having to wait. That reduces the number of rooms available.

Is there anything that can be done there to ensure that there are more options?

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

Maybe I'll pass this one on to the Clerk.

I know that we've gotten to the point where a lot of the committees can meet now. Initially, there was some ramping up that had to be done. Again, with all the work that's been going on in the background, I'm not sure about doing it in person, but as far as doing it virtually goes, like we're doing now, we've come a long way. We pretty well are ready to accommodate that way, whether it's translation or services.

Charles?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

There's an issue with sound again.

[Charles Robert]

Okay. Can you hear me now?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes.

[Charles Robert]

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Alghabra, the issue that comes up is the allocation of the resources that are available in addition to the health protocols that have to be followed when we move from one event to the other.

On the committee side, for example, there has been a ramp-up of services that we are offering this week. We can now do 54 events, but there is going to be a ceiling, I guess, at some point, as long as we are obliged to meet in either hybrid or virtual format.

I can ask the deputy clerk of procedure to offer supplementary information, but I think, in fact, that we have done pretty well as much as we can for the moment in providing support to you.

[Omar Alghabra, Liberal, Mississauga Centre, ON]

Go ahead, Mr. Gagnon. Did you want to say something?

[André Gagnon]

Thank you, Mr. Alghabra.

I have just a short addition to what the Clerk has just mentioned.

This increase in services provided by all of the services of the House of Commons, including the services provided by the translation office, has been done through the whips' offices. A great collaboration has taken place there. That's why we were able to increase significantly the amount of services and the possibilities for members to do so. That said, working with the different time zones and with the different protocols that need to be followed make it very difficult to increase significantly more the possibilities for the future.

That said, I know that we're working very actively to at least try to evaluate and anticipate future needs, but clearly, working with the different whips has been quite useful. I would probably encourage you to do so, and to contact your whip's office if there is a special need for, let's say, a special meeting.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Gagnon.

I have Monsieur Therrien for six minutes.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Good morning.

I'm very happy to be with you today. I must congratulate you on the good work you're doing. I think we can all agree on that.

Before we start looking at the budget, I'd like to ask you a question about security for MPs. When Jagmeet Singh had the bright idea to call me racist, I got tens of thousands of hate emails. One of the problems we have in our work is social media. I've received tens of thousands of messages, if not more, and several death threats. As a result, my constituency riding and my home have had to be monitored by the police in Roussillon, in my part of the country.

First of all, I'd like to know how security for MPs works. Have you been contacted? Did the RCMP contact the police?

I know that the employees in my office called the Roussillon police because they were worried about my safety. My children, who are 8 and 11 years old, found it extremely strange to see the police walking back and forth in front of our house; they were very worried and even scared.

Could you take a minute to talk about how you proceeded and whether you were involved in the situation?

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

It's a situation we took very seriously. We had already taken several steps before it happened. I would say that we were ready for just about any situation.

I'll let the Sergeant-at-Arms speak so he can explain exactly what we did in detail. Much of this information is still being studied in camera, away from the public.

I'll let the Sergeant speak, as he will be able to provide more details, to a certain extent. It may also be a conversation that we will have to continue a little later.

[Patrick McDonell]

Mr. Chair, this is going to be a very short conversation because we had to discuss security issues behind closed doors. That's all I can say about it at the moment.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

It was a rather exceptional episode that I experienced, but leaders of opposition parties, including my own, were threatened on several occasions. My colleague, Mr. Lukiwski, spoke about this. We have called for increased security for our leader, but also for the other opposition leaders. It's strange, I have a feeling that it's not coming as quickly as we would like.

[Patrick McDonell]

Mr. Therrien, I can assure you that we've talked about security at every internal economy meeting for the past three weeks, and we'll continue on Thursday regarding the security of party leaders, ministers and all MPs.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

I'm talking about this because social media ignites certain situations. One political party, not to single out the NDP, has repeatedly called the Bloc Québécois, its members and myself racists, which does not make life as a parliamentarian any easier.

I'd like to come back to the budget very quickly. I think the question will be for Mr. Rota, but I'm not sure.

The largest increases were in personnel. We're talking about $14 million. If I believe what you said, it's simply because of the increase in the CPI, which means that salaries have gone up. That's the only thing that would explain this significant increase.

Is that correct?

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

Absolutely. I'm going to turn to Mr. Paquette, who will be able to answer your question in detail.

[Daniel Paquette, Chief Financial Officer, House of Commons]

Certainly.

A large part of the $14 million comes from the increase in the cost of living and the cost of living index, which is about $5.5 million. We also had approval to increase our support capacity for members of Parliament. A human resources team was put in place to assist MPs as employers. That's just over $2 million. There is also just under $1 million for the capacity of our law clerk group. Every time we change teams, there are costs; we know that salaries are expensive.

Other investments include standardization of computers in constituency offices. The team in place for this has also been added. There was also approval, even before lockdown, to increase webcasting of videos for this team as well. Each of these things contributed to the total increase. That's where the $14 million came from.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

Okay, thank you. That's clear.

I have one last quick question for you, hoping that time permits.

I see that from one year to the next, there is a marked decrease in repair and maintenance services.

[Daniel Paquette]

A few years ago we purchased a lot of equipment and supplies for the implementation of the long-term vision and and plan project for the West Block and the building at 180 Wellington. This infrastructure has been purchased and is being put in place. There will probably be some stability, but since everything eventually wears out, I can predict that there will be growth again at the end of the useful life cycle of the equipment installed in these new buildings.

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

It's still—

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Thank you, Mr. Therrien.