National Post (National Edition)
Senate agrees to hybrid format
Committee meetings to resume
OTTAWA • After months of lagging behind their parliamentary colleagues senators should be able to meet fully starting this week, after all parties came to an agreement on how the red chamber can meet in a COVID-19 world.
A deal is expected to be introduced and approved in the Senate on Tuesday that will see virtual and hybrid committee meetings resume, the last step in getting the Senate to full function, just as government bills could start coming to the chamber.
Senator Yuen Pau Woo, facilitator for the Independent Senators’ Group, the largest caucus in the chamber, said the deal is an important step to getting back to normal business.
“The Senate does important work through its committees, including holding the government to account and making improvements to legislation,” he said in a statement.
Committee hearings in both the House and Senate are where the significant review of legislation takes place. MPs and Senators can hear expert advice and tweak legislation often catching important flaws.
Unlike earlier in the year, there are now multiple government bills working their way through the process that are separate from the COVID-19 response.
When the pandemic hit in March, both the Senate and the House of Commons were shuttered over fears they could become hot spots for spreading the virus. The House found a way quickly to resume many of the functions, with the special COVID committee in the spring, followed by a full resumption of Parliament in September.
Even before that, many House of Commons committee meetings had resumed functioning and demanding answers on the government’s response.
The Senate by contrast sat only a handful of times, usually to expedite passage of government spending bills. At the start of November, the main Senate chamber began sitting in a hybrid parliament and the new deal will allow committee meetings to resume as well.
The dispute over the committees came down to whether they would meet virtually, with all members using a video conference platform or whether they could meet in a hybrid fashion, with some committee members participating by video and others participating in person.
Conservative Senate leader Don Plett said the committees could have resumed much earlier if Independent Senators were willing to bend and allow for hybrid committee meetings.
“I am getting so tired of people saying, 'If I can’t have my way, then I’m going to pick up my ball and go home’.”
Plett said having hybrid meetings makes sense because it doesn’t cost anything and it allows Senators to participate in person if they so choose.