Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 23rd, 2021

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I noticed it when somebody was switching in their speech from English to French and they were doing it without a pause. They just continued to speak. You had that gap, because the volume just changed all of a sudden. It was very low.

I feel like we need to tell our witnesses—

[Alain Therrien, Bloc, La Prairie, QC]

You're right, Madam Chair. However, it was worse. We couldn't hear the interpreter very well, but the sound was certainly louder.

My colleague was right to say that there was a big difference, but it's better now. It's okay for me.

[The Clerk]

Madam Chair, the technicians in the back have fine-tuned the volume a bit. They'll try to continuously adjust it if we continue to have a problem.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Your volume is not very good to me, Mr. Clerk.

[The Clerk]

Is that right? I'm having a problem now.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

It's getting better.

[The Clerk]

Okay.

I was just saying that the technicians are fine-tuning the volume and adjusting it as we go. If there are any other issues like that, please just let us know and we'll try to continue to improve it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I know that we're being told with the new version of Zoom that you don't need to switch between your interpretation languages in your tool box. Let me know if this is not an appropriate suggestion, but I would suggest that if a member is changing languages from French to English, maybe they could be mindful and try to take a one- or two-second pause before they switch to the other language they're speaking. When the translators switch the channel, we don't hear the volume immediately at the level we should be hearing it at.

If you're a very talented person and bilingual and like to switch back and forth between the languages, which I love to see, just be mindful to leave a gap of a few seconds there. I think it would help for those listening to the interpretation.

At any rate, Ms. Vecchio had called for a vote. I need consensus to move to a vote and for the debate to finish on that motion for it to go to a vote. You can't just call for a vote in that way.

I can see at least four hands up, at this point—

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Madam Speaker, I see that this isn't going to go on. I see that it's all Liberal members. Welcome to today's filibuster.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Next we have Mr. Long.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Madam Chair, on a point of order, if I may, before you go to Mr. Long, I just want to make sure that in fact I'm registered to be able to be on the speakers list. Ms. Vecchio and others have kind of inspired me to want to add some thoughts on the issue. If you could just provide me the assurance that I am on the list, I would very much appreciate it.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Yes.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I have a point of order on that. How many members are able to be on the speaking list?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I don't think there's a limit to the speakers list.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

I'm just referring to each party. Is somebody else giving up their time? I'm just wondering about subs. Is this a sub or is this a person just sharing their time?

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I see what you're saying. Let's see if the official paperwork has been received by the clerk. If so, I believe that Mr. Lamoureux is here as an official sub.

[The Clerk]

Madam Chair, I believe Mr. Lamoureux isn't here as an official sub. He's a member sitting in on the meeting, which members can do in a public meeting, which this is.

[Karen Vecchio, Conservative, Elgin—Middlesex—London, ON]

Perfect. Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

Can members speak if they're just sitting in?

[The Clerk]

Generally, the practice has been to put them in the speaking list if they do want to speak. Their turn comes up when their turn comes up.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

That is what I've seen previously as well, but I just wanted to.... I know that these types of procedural issues can become contentious in a meeting like this, and I wanted to be certain and clear.

Mr. Lamoureux, you are on the speakers list. You are after Mr. Fragiskatos.

[Kevin Lamoureux, Liberal, Winnipeg North, MB]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

On a point of order, Madam Chair, you said my name right, just at the end there. If you just clip that and run with it, you'll be great.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ruby Sahota]

I know. Sometimes I want to reverse the “R” and put the “A” in front, and that messes me up. Thank you for that.

Thank you for your patience and for not getting irritated with me about that.

Mr. Long, it's your turn.

[Wayne Long, Liberal, Saint John—Rothesay, NB]

Thank you, Madam Chair, and good afternoon to all my colleagues.

I have just one thing on the interpretation. I wanted to jump in there. If you go to the interpretation button and click on “mute” or ”unmute original audio”, sometimes that will help fix that problem of both voices coming through at the same time. I just wanted to add that. I'm not a computer technician, but that's what I was told last time.

Again, thank you. I'm happy to sub in on PROC again. I feel like a regular now. I think I've attended probably five or six meetings in the last few weeks. I love coming in here. I thank you, Chair, and certainly all the committee members, for all the great work you're doing on behalf of Canadians.

I'm thrilled today to see a real strong New Brunswick flavour to the committee. My two friends and colleagues, Serge Cormier and René Arseneault, from the north part of the province, are on the meeting too. Don't be envious of Saint John, guys. It is +6°C here today and I know it's probably -20°C in northern New Brunswick, but things will get warmer up there for you soon, I'm sure.

Madam Chair, we're obviously here to talk about the motion, and I have some thoughts, but I do want to read this into the record. I know that there were some polls done. MP Vecchio referenced some polls being done. I'm looking at the Twitter polls and, to her point, there were French and English Twitter polls done. There were almost 6,000 votes between the two. The numbers on the Twitter polls of 6,000 votes were, give or take, that 60% said “no” and 40% said “yes”. That's for both Twitter polls, both French and English. I just wanted to make sure that this was read in.

Again, we're here for this motion. I'm here to speak on the motion. I just want to go back very briefly to talk about when I first came to Ottawa as a member of Parliament. Obviously, that was in 2015. I'm a two-term MP now. I don't feel like a veteran, but I guess I am. I remember going to committee. I was excited to be on committee at that point. As some people will remember, I was on HUMA and on the ethics committee. I was certainly excited to participate in the committees and to debate and to ask questions of people who presented.

I can remember calling ministers in, whether it was for supps or what have you. I won't name the minister or the MP on the Conservative side, but I can remember when the minister came in once—