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Board of Internal Economy meeting

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Meeting Minutes

Thursday, February 25, 2021

A meeting of the Board of Internal Economy of the House of Commons was held on Thursday, February 25, 2021, at 11:05 a.m., in Room 035-B, West Block.

In the Chair: The Honourable Anthony Rota, Speaker of the House of Commons

Present: The Honourables Mark Holland, Dominic LeBlanc, Ginette Petitpas Taylor and Pablo Rodríguez; Mr. Gérard Deltell, Mr. Blake Richards, Ms. Claude DeBellefeuille and Mr. Peter Julian

Secretary to the Board: Charles Robert, Clerk of the House of Commons

Also Present: Bruce Stanton, Chair, Working Group on the LTVP and the Centre Block Rehabilitation; Rob Wright, Assistant Deputy Minister, Science and Parliamentary Infrastructure Branch, Public Services and Procurement Canada; Susan Kulba, Director General and Executive Architect, Real Property; Jennifer Garrett, Director General, Centre Block Program, Public Services and Procurement Canada; Michel Patrice, Deputy Clerk, Administration; Eric Janse, Clerk Assistant, Committees and Legislative Services Directorate; André Gagnon, Deputy Clerk, Procedure; Daniel Paquette, Chief Financial Officer; Michelle Laframboise, Chief Human Resources Officer; Robyn Daigle, Director, Members’ HR Services; Philippe Dufresne, Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel; Guillaume LaPerrière-Marcoux, Secretariat

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING

The minutes of the meeting of January 28, 2021, were approved for tabling.


LTVP WORKING GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS

Bruce Stanton, Chair of the Working Group on the LTVP and the Centre Block Rehabilitation, presented an update to the Board on the Centre Block rehabilitation project.

The Board concurred with the Working Group’s proposed design option for the central entry to the Parliament Welcome Centre.


BUSINESS ARISING FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS

The Board took note of correspondence distributed since its last meeting and Eric Janse, Clerk Assistant, Committees and Legislative Services; André Gagnon, Deputy Clerk, Procedure; and Michel Patrice, Deputy Clerk, Administration, answered questions.

It was agreed that the Administration provide regular reports containing statistics on the distribution of headsets to committee participants, and that a dashboard be developed and shared for tracking technical incidents since the implementation of new measures to ensure that witnesses and parliamentarians can fully participate in committee proceedings.

The Administration also agreed to provide information on resource capacity for hybrid committee meetings and other parliamentary events.


EXTENSION OF CERTAIN TEMPORARY COVID-19 MEASURES TO FISCAL YEAR 2021–2022

Daniel Paquette, Chief Financial Officer, presented a proposal to extend to fiscal year 2021–2022 certain temporary measures that were approved by the Board in fiscal year 2020–2021 in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, and with Michelle Laframboise, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Michel Patrice, Deputy Clerk, Administration, answered questions.

The Board agreed that the following temporary measures (expiring on March 31, 2021) be extended to September 30, 2021:

1. Allow Members to charge to the House Administration central budget up to $1,500 in costs for consumables (e.g. non-medical masks, hand sanitizer, posters, signs, floor stickers, additional cleaning supplies, gloves, disinfectant wipes and additional routine cleaning services) and any other COVID-19–related expenses that may be preapproved by the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) for each of their constituency offices.

2. Allow Members who have not fully used their allocation for constituency office reconfigurations and fixtures to continue to charge up to $2,000 per constituency office to the House Administration central budget. Additionally, where warranted and reasonable, and upon preapproval from the CHRO in consultation with the Chief Financial Officer, allow expenses to exceed the established limit of $2,000 without exceeding $3,500 per constituency office.

3. Allow Members to charge costs for emergency professional cleaning and disinfecting services for their constituency offices, where warranted and reasonable, and upon preapproval from the CHRO, to the House Administration central budget.

And that the following temporary measures (expiring on March 31, 2021) be extended to March 31, 2022:

4. Set the advertising expense limit to 20% of the Member’s Office Budget (MOB).

5. Allow Members’ advertisements, householders, constituency mail and externally printed materials produced in fewer than 5,000 copies to include:

a. information (i.e. website address, phone number and logo) and/or COVID 19–related messages from local community, government or not for profit organizations of interest to their constituents; and

b. solicitations of donations to registered Canadian charities for matters related to COVID-19.

6. Allow Members to reimburse their employees who are working from home in support of parliamentary functions for reasonable high-speed Internet service costs through their MOB.

As a matter of clarification and general alignment, the Board agreed to allow the extension of the transition support services for 12 months, approved by the Board on June 1, 2020, to apply to other related eligible expenses.


QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT FOR THE THIRD QUARTER OF 2020–2021

Daniel Paquette, Chief Financial Officer, presented the Quarterly Financial Report for the Third Quarter of 2020–2021.


At 11:50 a.m., the sitting was suspended.

At 11:52 a.m., the sitting resumed in camera.


EMPLOYMENT MATTERS

The Board agreed to the alignment of certain provisions in the Members By-law and the Members’ Allowances and Services Manual (MAS) relating to the payment of employee separation or working notice entitlements when employees of research offices and of Presiding Officers are not retained following a general election.


REVIEW OF USE OF HOUSE OF COMMONS RESOURCES

The Board reviewed the use of House of Commons resources by Ms. Yasmin Ratansi, Member of Parliament for Don Valley East. As part of the review process, Ms. Ratansi was given opportunities to make written and oral representations to the Board before it made its determination.

The Board determined that Ms. Ratansi breached the Members By-law by employing her sister in her constituency office from January 23, 2017 to November 2, 2020. As a result, the Board decided that Ms. Ratansi will be required to reimburse to the House of Commons the termination and severance pay amounts, totalling $9,391.27, that were paid to her sister when her employment was terminated. The Board also noted Ms. Ratansi’s lack of cooperation during its review of the matter.


MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS WORKPLACE HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE PREVENTION POLICY – APPEAL PROCESS

The Board considered a proposed appeal process and agreed that it be added to the current Members of the House of Commons Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Policy.


The meeting was adjourned.

Charles Robert
Secretary to the Board of Internal Economy