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Board of Internal Economy meeting

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Meeting Minutes

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

A meeting of the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons was held on Tuesday, December 9, 2014 at 11:15 a.m., in Room 340-S, Centre Block.

In the Chair: The Honourable Andrew Scheer, Speaker of the House of Commons

Present: The Honourables Peter Van Loan, John Duncan and Dominic LeBlanc; Mrs. Stella Ambler; Mrs. Nycole Turmel; Mr. Philip Toone

Acting Secretary to the Board: Marc Bosc, Acting Clerk of the House of Commons

Also Present: André Gagnon, Acting Deputy Clerk; Stéphan Aubé, Chief Information Officer; Richard Denis, Deputy Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel; Pierre Parent, Chief Human Resources Officer; Eric Janse, Clerk Assistant and Director General, International and Interparliamentary Affairs; Mark Watters, Chief Financial Officer; Robin Kells, Secretariat

Minutes of Previous Meeting

The minutes of the meeting of November 25, 2014 were adopted and approved for tabling.

Renewal of Constituency Communication Network Services

The Board gave its approval for the House of Commons to proceed with issuing a request for proposal to procure a cost-effective Wide Area Network solution directly from a national service provider in order to replace and modernize the Constituency Communication Network in constituency offices across Canada.

Joint Interparliamentary Council

Further to a request from the co-chairs of the Joint Interparliamentary Council (JIC), the Board agreed to provide the House of Commons’ portion of the funding to a prorated maximum of $550,000, if required, in order to facilitate Canada’s continued participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU). The Board recognized the IPU’s accomplishments in reducing membership fees and the Speaker, on behalf of the Board, will write to the IPU to encourage the implementation of further budgetary and fee reductions.

Harassment

After discussion, the Board approved the implementation of a harassment prevention policy , effective immediately, that applies to Members and House Officers as employers and their employees and to Research Office employees.

Members’ Allowances and Services

Language Training Cancellation Policy

The Board took note of the information provided by the House Administration and raised concerns that Members were not enrolling in language training as an unintended consequence of the implementation of a fee charged to Members’ Office Budgets for language training appointments cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice. The Board noted that parliamentary duties such as voting, other House duties and travel delays are legitimate reasons for late cancellations. As a result, the Board decided that in cases where unplanned absences were a direct result of parliamentary duties, the fee would be charged to a central budget.

Budget Supplement for Unrecognized Party

After discussion, the Board denied the request for supplementary funding from an unrecognized party.

Legal Fees

The Board reviewed the policy for the payment of legal fees and agreed to continue to deal with matters on a case-by-case basis but will continue to apply existing principles.

Emblem

The Board asked that the House Administration prepare a report on the implementation of the House of Commons and Parliamentary emblems, including the status of sales at the Parliamentary Boutique.

Satellite Offices

The Board agreed to consider the matter at its first meeting in 2015.

The meeting was adjourned.

Marc Bosc
Acting Secretary to the Board