Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, if that's what the committee wants to do. It would also probably make it easier for organizing Mr. Aubé's availability if this issue is dealt with right away at 11 a.m., when the meeting starts.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If the parties were to commit to providing their draft recommendations in both official languages, meaning that it would fall to them to have the material translated before they submit it to me, it would buy a good amount of time in terms of the work that would need to be done to have the material prepared for Thursday.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Do you want them in both languages, Madam Chair? Is that the suggestion?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Wednesday potentially could work depending on when all the recommendations could be provided to me. For example, if it's around noon, that would buy some additional time for translation. One of the issues for translation is it depends on the total volume of material that needs to be translated, and then some time is needed by the analyst to incorporate that into a new draft and have that turned around.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, if the suggestion was that draft recommendations from all parties would be available to the committee for this coming Thursday meeting, there might be timeline issues involved in terms of the translation and providing enough time for Andre to incorporate them into a draft report, all for Thursday.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We make best efforts to have it ready, but there might be some time pressure in terms of getting all of that material translated for the coming Thursday meeting.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If you were to provide a deadline of end of day Wednesday, for example, the idea would be to have that material turned around and incorporated into the draft report for perhaps the meeting next Monday. That would provide the opportunity to have everything translated and incorporated into a new draft.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes. On June 15, the House of Commons administration did provide the committee, as per its order for the documents, with multiple documents of a contractual nature between the House of Commons and Zoom. There was an email sent out to members of the committee—I have it right here—at 11:48 p.m. on June 15.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, Mr. Brassard has approximately 20 seconds left.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  May I just remind the committee that we could do that at the beginning of the meeting? In the meantime, we will also send out the draft committee report, or the portion available, so that the committee can move to the draft committee report after they conduct their committee business at the beginning of the meeting on Tuesday.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. Yes, I can confirm that this would be another approach, and in fact somewhat of a parallel approach to this one. What I just read to the committee would ultimately be packaged up as “the report” that PROC would be depositing with the Clerk of the House. The recommendation suggesting a new date would become a recommendation that the House could concur in on its own, or the four House leaders acting in unison could give effect to essentially formalizing a new deadline.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Mr. Richards, there is one last point, and this might be the most critical point of all. A report is required to be submitted to the Clerk of the House by the deadline of June 23, the issue being that if the committee goes beyond that date without having provided a report to the Clerk of the House, the committee's authority to report back would have the effect of expiring, essentially meaning that PROC would lose its ability to present a report to the House by way of the Clerk's office.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  If there is any leeway, it's literally a matter of minutes, so I'm not sure if that type of discussion could be conducted and concluded in such a brief period of time. It may be something that the committee may want to consider doing at its next meeting.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I do have some wording that I can read to the committee with the date that was moved by Mr. Gerretsen. The motion reads as follows: That not withstanding the reporting deadline of June 23, 2020, stipulated by the House instructions of May 26, 2020, the committee recommends that it be given an extension until Friday, July 10, 2020, to present a report in relation to its current study on parliamentary duties and the COVID-19 pandemic; and that this recommendation be reported to the House.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I'm checking with the technical staff to see if they can address the problem. They have suggested that we do consecutive interpretation. We would have one of the interpreters be part of the meeting. The member would speak in French and then we would pause while the interpreter interpreted in English for the witness and when the witness responded, the interpreter would provide the response in French.