Procedure and House Affairs committee  The answer to that, Mr. Chair, as I think was said earlier by Mr. MacKenzie, is that the U.K. model was built on allowances rather than reimbursement against receipt, and our system is built on reimbursement against receipt. So the chance of that happening here would be much lowe

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The regime we have here is quite different. Even in the salary of a parliamentarian in Canada versus a parliamentarian in the U.K., there's a huge difference, and they're beginning to grapple with that in the U.K. The drivers are completely different.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  —dummy receipts actually provided to us for reimbursement. It would be fraud, as opposed to a regime in which it's based more on allowances. There's a lot of history as to why that is the case in the U.K. There was a huge push to keep salaries low and keep allowances high, and th

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Chair, we are planning on hiring—well, we actually did because this was done in the fall of last year, and the committee agreed with the request for supplementary estimates last year to fund this partially—13 employees, 11 of those in my sector, in f

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, absolutely. Thank you for the opportunity to respond, Mr. Chair. We are doing two things. First, we're investing in trying to be more proactive with members by providing training sessions. There were six training sessions last week on disclosure and what this means. The thi

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. This follows an assessment made by the Chief Actuary of Canada, who works for Treasury Board. When he analyzed these pension plans, he determined that the contributions could be reduced, in light of the new configuration of the plan and the likeli

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. As the law clerk has explained, the process would be laid out in progressive steps, as per section 19 in the bylaws. The Clerk of the House, under the authority of the board, would first of all give notice to a member that an amount is outstanding. As Mr.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It says “90 days”, so I guess absent specification it would be calendar days.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, it would depend on the date that the request was made of a member for reimbursement. If a date was specified—the board would like repayment by such-and-such a date—that is the date from which the 90 days would start to count down.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If we look at section 20 of the bylaws as well, it is the only place where we have a specific timeline in place. It says: If a Member is 90 days or more in arrears in an amount owed to the House of Commons, the Chief Financial Officer —which would be me, in this particular ca

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In terms of reimbursement, yes, Mr. Lukiwski.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, I would agree, Mr. Lukiwski.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. On the question of outside printers, which I think the member was speaking to, there is a prohibition on asking the House to reimburse for any printing done by an outside printer for over 4,500 copies. As members know, that is clearly laid out in the Member

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Chair, all householders and ten percenters are prepared by the House. I think what the member is talking about is other types of things that might be printed, but householders and ten percenters are produced strictly by the House, and therefore, the bylaws are applied. They a

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's correct. Printing and mailing services would prepare material at the request of members, subject to the entitlements, the paper allowances that members have to respect, but they would also ensure compliance with the bylaws.