Parties disagree over virtual parliament rules
OTTAWA •House of Commons business looks set to grind to a halt until at least late January after Liberals and Conservatives failed to agree on measures to keep open a virtual parliament.
New hybrid rules that combined video conferencing and in-person sittings were agreed to in September but expired Friday, when the Commons rose for a Christmas break.
Just as in previous years, MPS won't return for Question Period or other debates in the House of Commons until late January, but it is not unheard of for committees to sit during break periods to examine urgent issues.
However, with no agreement in place to continue the hybrid parliament, committees, such as finance and ethics, can only be held in person, unlikely as the COVID pandemic rages.
Conservative House Leader Gérard Deltell said his party had reservations about a virtual parliament, but admitted they were proved wrong.
“We were very concerned with how things would work and we can say without a shadow of a doubt that the system is working,” he said.
Deltell said he saw no reason not to keep the rules in place.
“We don't know what the future will be with the pandemic so more than ever, we need to have a stable situation for parliamentarians.”
Deltell said committees may want to come back during the break to examine urgent issues and by refusing to agree to an extension of the rules, the Liberals were preventing that from happening.
In addition to urgent issues that could arise over the next six weeks, MPS may have to be recalled to deal with possible changes to the government's medically assisted dying bill. That bill passed in the Commons on Thursday, before heading to the Senate.
If the Senate proposes any changes to the bill, the House of Commons has to formally consider them before rejecting or accepting them. A Quebec court gave the government until Dec. 18 to change the medically assisted dying legislation, after ruling parts of the law were unconstitutional. Late Friday, the government asked for an extension to that court deadline to late February, but it was unclear if the court would grant it.
Deltell asked Liberal House Leader Pablo Rodriguez during Friday's Question Period to commit to extend the virtual parliament rules, but Rodriguez declined. Rodriguez said Deltell wasn't being sincere by proposing the idea in the middle of Question Period.
“That was a gimmick. That was a game, because you never negotiate motions on the floor of the House,” he said.
He also said the House of Commons was undergoing technical upgrades during the winter break, which would already limit any committees from returning.
The House of Commons chief information officer Stéphan Aubé told MPS earlier this month there would be upgrades done during the break, but he insisted that if there was an urgent need to call either the full house or any committees back, they would be prepared.
Rodriguez said the government was fully prepared to extend hybrid sittings, but wanted the Conservatives to commit to using a new proposed voting app. Before the pandemic, MPS cast a vote by rising when their name was called in the House of Commons. In the virtual parliament, MPS vote by Zoom, indicating their preference when their name is called.
The agreement that allowed for the virtual parliament called for a voting app to be tested, but it could only be put into place if MPS from all parties agreed to move forward with it. The Conservatives have not agreed.
The Zoom votes can take up to an hour, much longer than the traditional voting, which ordinarily takes less than 15 minutes. Rodriguez said the app was state of the art and included facial recognition verification measures, to ensure only MPS voted.
He said there was no reason MPS should be sitting in front of a screen for hours waiting to cast votes.
“it's important that we move on to this app and it was always the intention,” he said.
Deltell said his party had an open mind on the app, but testing was not yet complete.
“We need to have some tests and everybody should have the chance to test it before saying yes or no.”
NDP House leader Peter Julian said there should be rules in place now in case Parliament was called back for an urgent reason. He said the parties should have extended the hybrid rules and leave debate over other issues for the future.
“I don't think it's particularly responsible to leave this void and this uncertainty.”
Julian said the house has functioned well in the hybrid sitting and most importantly it had kept people safe.