Evidence of meeting #19 for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was bank.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Barsalou-Duval.
Before I ask for questions on each motion, I'm going to ask the clerk to give us an update on some of the efforts the House of Commons is currently involved in that may attach to the three motions.
Mr. Clerk.
The Clerk of the Committee Mr. Michael MacPherson
Beginning with the testing of witnesses and the use of headsets and whatnot, our current practice is that all witnesses are tested before appearing at committee. We make every effort to make sure that every witness is provided with a headset. It's not always possible to get a witness a headset in time. We do have express delivery of those headsets and the House makes every effort to get them to witnesses. If they're in a major metropolitan area, we can get them to the witnesses the next morning. On that issue, when dealing with testing of witnesses, if the committee would like to codify it as a practice, that is great, but I will point out that we're already doing it, just to reassure all members this is indeed the case.
With regard to the other motions, Mr. Bachrach raised an issue of when it comes to amendments from the floor. My concern just administratively here in trying to support the committee is who would be doing this translation service. It's not actually a function of the interpreters in the room. Some motions, particularly when you start to deal with bills and whatnot, cannot just be done via straight translation. There actually are specialized translators who work on those documents.
Certainly it's not the role of the clerk to do that. The clerk could not be translating documents at committee. We are not certified translators. That said, those are just some administrative concerns.
On motions, the committee does have a routine motion that all documents, of course, are to be distributed only by the clerk and only when they're available in both official languages. One would expect that does occur pretty much in a hundred per cent of the cases that I can think of here in committee.
I am trying to think of any other pertinent information.
There's an issue with the Translation Bureau as well. Sometimes we have stakeholder groups or whatnot who provide us with pre-translated briefs. Maybe they're already posted on their websites. These could be publications that the stakeholder group has already put out in both languages. Sometimes these are copyrighted, and so to have those then sent to the Translation Bureau might be a little bit problematic, but, of course, if the committee wants us to do that, we can do that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you, Mr. Clerk.
Now, folks, I'm going to go to each motion. I know Ms. Jaczek and, I think, Mr. Soroka had their hands up for questions.
I'm going to go first to motion number one. Are there any questions on motion number one?
Mr. Kram, go ahead.
Conservative
Michael Kram Conservative Regina—Wascana, SK
Mr. Chair, which motion is motion number one? Is that the sound check for witnesses or is that the linguistic revision?
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Why did you have to ask me that?
Mr. Clerk, can you read out motion number one quickly, please?
The Clerk
I think Mr. Kram's point was just which of the three motions we would designate as motion number one.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Yes, go with the first one that Mr. Barsalou-Duval presented to the floor.
NDP
Taylor Bachrach NDP Skeena—Bulkley Valley, BC
Mr. Chair, if I may, I believe the first motion related to the technical check and the testing of headsets.
The Clerk
It reads: That the clerk inform each witness who is to appear before the Committee that the House Administration support team must conduct technical tests to check the connectivity and the equipment used to ensure the best possible sound quality; and that the Chair advises the Committee, at the start of each meeting, of any witnesses who did not perform the required technical tests.
Conservative
Gerald Soroka Conservative Yellowhead, AB
My question is about the fact that for the most part we've been pretty good with sound quality, but it's about the interpretation services. As Ms. Gillis put forward, can we also check that at the same time? I don't know if the interpreters are on at the same time you're doing the voice checking or if they have to alternate between the two.
The Clerk
It's my understanding that the sound quality is checked as part of the process for checking the witnesses' connectivity and sound quality.
Liberal
Liberal
Helena Jaczek Liberal Markham—Stouffville, ON
It was simply very much along the same lines as what Mr. Soroka was saying, whether we can ensure that any testing ensures that the witness understands exactly how to use the interpretation piece as part of the sound check as well.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Good. Are there any further questions on motion number one? I see none.
Mr. Clerk, do you want to call the vote?
The Clerk
Again, this is the motion with regard to the testing of witnesses before they appear at committee. Would you like me to read the entire motion again?
Liberal
Andy Fillmore Liberal Halifax, NS
No, thank you. I just needed to know which one it was.
I vote in favour.
Thank you for the clarification.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Vance Badawey
Thank you.
(Motion agreed to: yeas 11; nays 0)
Mr. Clerk, could you read the second motion, please?
The Clerk
We'll go with the motion on translation:
That all documents submitted for Committee business that do not come from a federal department or that have not been translated by the Translation Bureau be sent for prior linguistic review by the Translation Bureau before being distributed to members.