Health committee  Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Bonjour, tout le monde. Good afternoon. I'm very happy to be here to speak to you today about the House of Commons H1N1 preparedness approach and our response to the issue of the pandemic. I'm joined today by Kathryn Butler Malette, who is the director general of Human Resources and as such is responsible for occupational health and safety as well as corporate planning and communication services, and the Sergeant-at-Arms, Kevin Vickers, who is responsible for business continuity in a larger umbrella.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Can Monsieur Bard answer the question about the network?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It has already been done. At the time, every Board of Internal Economy was kept up to date at an information session specifically on food services for the House. Next October I will be celebrating my fourth anniversary as Clerk, a position I have held through three Parliaments. I have noted that, because of turnover, this matter has not been broached recently at these information sessions.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am not promoting my views over those of the Board of Internal Economy. It may very well decide to move forward with this initiative even though it is not what I would do. If that were the case, I would implement its decision. However, I must tell you that what I have learned does not make me optimistic.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That is your interpretation. I must say that what is required is a skin that is somewhat more—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have no comment to make on that. However, I really like the French term for spam, that is pourriel.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I will start with that question because it is fairly easy to answer. I spoke to Mr. Bard about the situation and he informed me that artificial limits, if you will, were not placed on MPs' e-mails because some MPs had complained that it led to filtering out of information that had to be forwarded to them.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  No, but we conducted a major study on whether or not to open the restaurant. This will soon be on the agenda of the Board of Internal Economy. As you know, the Board meets quite regularly, almost every week. However, the agenda has been very full. That is why we have not been able to add this item.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  As we did specifically in this case, yes.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may, Mr. Chair, the arrangements for the House to give a special budget to a sitting member who is a former Prime Minister is not under a continuing order. That is done on a case-by-case basis. The board in existence at the time will then look at the needs of the sitting member.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My understanding is that you are correct in assuming that. In our case, I don't think we have anybody, any union, to which that would apply, because everybody is at the bargaining table. All of the collective agreements have run out.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Not in terms of the precedents that we could find.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We would happy to take that on and see what solution we could come up with for you. Certainly, as you say, the scanning of documents can make a big difference to efficiency.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If I may, Mr. Comartin, one of the things that sometimes happens when individual requests come up like this that are eminently reasonable is that we look at them in light of perhaps the emergence of a new type of service to members. It's a question of figuring out how we're going to provide that to everybody.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That seems like a worthy goal, then.