Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I will do my best to ask every question through the Chair. If I may, through you, Madam Chair, I thank all of the witnesses for being here today. I really appreciate their testimony. I reflect on the fact that this was something that we have never seen before in this area or, in fact, in Canada, and that there were some serious concerns.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Who does the PPS directly report to? Is that the Speaker?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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....

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. I thank all of our witnesses for being here today. I know that the last several months have been incredibly taxing on everyone, and I want to recognize all the hard work that you provided to us during that time. The first question I want to ask is around committees.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. I know that the interpreters have had a very hard time in the last few years. We know that injuries have increased dramatically. People have not had the proper technology. It's been a challenge trying to get the best technology. My next question is if there is a need for better investment in tools that will support our interpreters so that they have fewer injuries.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  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?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I don't think I have enough time for my final comment. I'll leave it at that. Thank you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Chair. As always, all my questions will go through the chair. Ms. Idlout, I want to thank you for your work here and for the words you shared with us today. I really admire it. The conversation we're having today is really important. I'm really moved by the story you told in your testimony about literally having to tell your constituents, “My name is the one in the middle.”

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you for that. Something that is very apparent is that there needs to be more work done in this area. What do you think Elections Canada could do about hiring local indigenous people as interpreters, potentially, maybe even as cultural interpreters to raise awareness of what the best process is to move forward to engage that population?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I am happy to second Mr. Duncan. Thank you so much to the witnesses—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —through the chair.