Procedure and House Affairs Committee on April 28th, 2022

[Michel Patrice]

On the nature of virtuality and so on in terms of the technology, we are making the necessary investment. Not only that, we're continuing to pursue this in terms of improvement in the technological aspects.

You're right. That mode of work for interpreters is challenging for them in terms of their health and physically. That's why they cannot do the same length of time as if it was a physical meeting. We're continuing, obviously, to leverage our capacity, our knowledge and also experts in the industry to continue to try to improve the working environment for interpreters.

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

The last part is around injury. Are we losing so many interpreters to injury that it is making it harder for us to have as many committees as we may want?

[Michel Patrice]

For that question, I would unfortunately direct you to the interpretation bureau, which is public works, but obviously we looked at the number, and we look at each incident to make sure that from the House perspective we're doing our best to reduce that amount of injury.

[Charles Robert]

There's also the reality of the pandemic and the fact that interpreters, too, are liable to catching the virus. That, too, has an impact on their ability to serve us.

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

Thank you.

I cannot say enough good things about the interpreters. They are always very generous with me, so I want to acknowledge their incredible work and their patience through this very hard time.

[Voices]

Hear, hear!

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

I want to come over to some questions about the PPS. The Deputy Speaker spoke very well in his presentation to us. Thank you for being here to represent Anthony.

There is one thing that I'm not clear on and need a little bit more clarification on. What is the role between the PPS and the RCMP? Has that completely been done, and who is fully responsible for the protective services in the parliamentary settings? I'm trying to understand that better.

[Larry Brookson]

I remain the last RCMP officer on the Hill. It's been completely decoupled from the service. The two Speakers run the direction of the service, and that's where I take my marching orders from.

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

Who does the PPS directly report to? Is that the Speaker?

[Larry Brookson]

It's to both Speakers, yes.

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

Thank you so much for that.

We know that during the occupation, there was a tremendous amount of work for them. By and large, they did an incredible job with very trying circumstances.

One of the questions that I have relating to this budget is, and you referenced several times that it was not accounted for when these estimates were sent in.... We know that in terms of staffing, there was a lot of overtime and there were a lot of people who were supposed to be on vacation who were asked to not go on vacation in order to accommodate the situation.

I'm wondering about those impacts. How is the PPS doing, being able to fulfill the work that they need to do now after going through such a hard time?

[Larry Brookson]

Our main focus is on our front line, so our employees who work for the service. We spent quite a bit of time in reaching out and providing the necessary assistance, particularly to our employees who were most impacted by the occupation.

I'm going to tell you, it was broad. It wasn't just the impact on our employees, it was the impact on their respective families. A lot of our employees were not able to be with their families, because we had them working almost non-stop.

We took the time, as a service family, to reach out to our employees, whether it was through assistance, psychologists or whatever. We keep reminding our employees that their mental wellness is an absolute priority for the service. That's not going to change for us.

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

I'm sorry. I have just a few more seconds.

I want to check on the economic part of that, with having to pay that kind of overtime, having to make people not take their vacation and postponing that for a period. What are the impacts for us in a budgetary way?

[Éric Savard]

In total, the cost of the convoy for PPS was about $6.3 million in overtime accrued expenditures. I should say that not all of it was taken; a lot of it will be taken on leave. In total, it will be about $4.5 million.

The employees had a choice to either be paid for the overtime or take it as compensatory leave. In the future months, they'll be able to take the time off and enjoy time with their families.

[Larry Brookson]

I'll pass that to Éric.

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

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Bardish Chagger]

Thank you.

I want to say, on this National Day of Mourning, I think it's quite fitting that we've been talking about our workers, those who have died and those who have suffered illness or injury. I think it's been a really good exchange. We also think about all of those, to the last comments, who surround them and who have been impacted. It's been a nice exchange.

I want to thank all members and all witnesses for being with us today.

Now, we will switch over to an in camera session to continue our meeting. We will suspend for a couple of minutes.

[Proceedings continue in camera]