THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL ECONOMY, BUDGETS AND ADMINISTRATION
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Thursday, April 28, 2022
The Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration met with videoconference this day at 11:30 a.m. [ET] pursuant to rule 12-7(1), in consideration of financial and administrative matters; and, in camera, pursuant to rule 12-7(1), consideration of financial and administrative matters.
Senator Sabi Marwah (Chair) in the chair.
(The committee continued in camera.)
(The committee resumed in public.)
The Chair: Good morning. My name is Sabi Marwah, I’m a senator from Ontario and I have the privilege to chair the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration. Today, we are conducting a hybrid meeting, with some senators participating virtually and others in person. The meeting began in camera, and we are now continuing with the public portion of the meeting.
I would like to introduce the senators who are participating in the meeting: Senator Patricia Bovey, Manitoba; Senator Larry Campbell, British Columbia; Senator Dennis Dawson, Quebec; Senator Tony Dean, Ontario; Senator Pat Duncan, Yukon; Senator Éric Forest, Quebec; Senator Raymonde Gagné, Manitoba; Senator Elizabeth Marshall, Newfoundland and Labrador; Senator Lucie Moncion, Ontario; Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain, Quebec; Senator Judith Seidman, Quebec; Senator Larry Smith, Quebec; Senator Scott Tannas, Alberta; and Senator Hassan Yussuff, Ontario. Joining us shortly this morning will be Senator Colin Deacon for the last item on the agenda. Welcome to all those viewing these proceedings across the country.
Honourable senators, the first item is the approval of the public minutes from April 7, 2022, which are in your package. Are there any questions or changes? I need a mover for the following motion:
That the Minutes of Proceedings of April 7, 2022, be adopted.
Senator Bovey moves the motion. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion? Seeing no objections, I declare the motion carried.
Colleagues, our next item is the annual update concerning translation and interpretation services, as well as a renewal of the partnership agreement between the Senate and the Translation Bureau for translation services.
Marie-Eve Belzile, Principal Clerk, Parliamentary Exchanges and Protocol, International and Interparliamentary Affairs; Lucie Séguin, Chief Executive Officer of the Translation Bureau; and Matthew Ball, Vice-President of Services to Parliament and Interpretation for the Translation Bureau will join the meeting by video conference as witnesses. As usual, these presentations will be followed by time for questions.
Welcome, Ms. Belzile, Ms. Séguin and Mr. Ball. I believe that Ms. Séguin and Mr. Ball will begin the presentation this morning by providing an annual update, and then we’ll open it up for questions.
[Translation]
Lucie Séguin, Chief Executive Officer, Translation Bureau: I am pleased to join Ms. Belzile today, along with my colleague Matthew Ball.
As I am in Ottawa, I would like to begin by acknowledging that I am speaking to you from the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe people. I would also like to acknowledge today’s interpreters, Claudette, André and Aleena, thanks to whom we are able to hold this meeting in both official languages.
Honourable members of the committee, thank you for having us here today to provide you with our annual update on the services provided by Public Services and Procurement Canada’s Translation Bureau. We were last here in June 2021.
As a centre of excellence in linguistic services, we proudly support Parliament, federal departments and agencies, the Supreme Court and administrative tribunals under federal jurisdiction. We pride ourselves on providing you with the highest quality services in both official languages, sign languages, foreign languages and Indigenous languages.
Like a lot of service providers in Canada, the Translation Bureau must now deal with limited capacity, while demand continues to grow. Since November 2020, the volume of translation related to parliamentary committees and debates work has continued to increase, and we are working hard to improve the efficiency of our internal processes, the flexibility of our supply and the strength of our workforce to meet demand.
The situation continues to be difficult on the interpretation side, as we discussed at our two previous annual meetings. Despite a partial resumption of in-person meetings — such as today’s meeting — the number of virtual sessions remains high, which continues to limit our capacity.
[English]
Thankfully, our partners at the Senate Administration, as well as House administration who are responsible for the technical aspect of interpretation services at Parliament, have been able to improve the interpreters’ working conditions. Notably, they have installed interpretation consoles designed to prevent acoustic shock. They have provided those taking part in sessions with appropriate headsets, and they ensure that there is a sound technician present. We are all very grateful to them.
We are also very grateful to all of you, honourable senators, for your strict adherence to best practices to promote sound quality during virtual sessions. I can see clearly today all of you participating remotely with a computer rather than a phone or a tablet. You are using a fast, wired internet connection, and you are using good quality unidirectional external microphones as well as taking part in tests before each session.
However, interpreting virtual sessions continues to present very real risks to our interpreters. The number of health and safety incidents reported remains very high.
As interpretation requires heightened concentration to isolate voices from the rest of the audio, interpreters are more vulnerable to video conference fatigue. It is even worse when the sound quality is poor, which is often the case in virtual sessions.
The National Research Council of Canada found the sound that interpreters receive in virtual sessions was of lower quality than the sound that virtual participants receive, and the increased number of virtual sessions has also coincided with an increased number of interpreters reporting headaches, fatigue and tinnitus.
To protect our interpreters, we are therefore continuing to reduce the number of working hours for virtual sessions. This reduces our capacity and makes it more challenging to manage demand given the shortage of interpreters in Canada and around the world. We do prioritize Parliament when assigning our resources, and although we have always had a team of interpreters dedicated specifically to the Senate, we sometimes lack the interpreters to meet the total needs.
Honourable senators, we are well aware of the difficulties that this situation causes you, and we fully share your concerns. Please know that we are reluctant to limit the interpretation services we provide to all of our clients, not only in the Senate but in the House of Commons, in the press gallery, at the Privy Council Office as well as in courts and federal departments and agencies.
We are working hard to optimize how we allocate our limited resources, and we are committed to meeting the terms of our partnership agreement with the Senate by carefully calculating schedules we can provide in the Senate and the House of Commons, as well as respecting the order of priority given to us by Senate Administration. We are also committed to succession planning and recruitment to increase our capacity and to conduct research projects in order to make evidence-based decisions.
Thank you very much for your patience and cooperation as we work together to ensure that supply meets demand. Rest assured that the Translation Bureau is making every effort to remain the centre of excellence you can rely on for your linguistic needs.
Matthew and I will stay online and are ready to take questions. Thank you very much.
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Séguin. Before we open it up for questions, the only comment that I would make is that while clearly there have been some issues on capacity, and we understand the reasons for that, I must congratulate you on the quality of services we get from the Translation Bureau; it is superb. I must thank you and all the translators that help us to do our jobs on a day-to-day basis. The quality has been superb, and for that I thank you.
Senator Campbell: I can only echo the words of the chair with regard to interpretation. It has been sterling under incredibly difficult circumstances. I thank everyone involved.
I have been advised that there are translation services in Ottawa that are presently doing translation for government at different agencies, and I’m wondering why we can’t bring these people in possibly on contract. I do not know the details. Are there people out there that we could hire? My indication from these agencies is, yes, we could. I’m also advised that one of the specialties of our translators is simultaneous translation, that it is a very specialized area and perhaps these agencies outside of here don’t have that.
Is it possible that we could hire from outside and bring them in, or on a contract? Thank you.
Ms. Séguin: I will take that question. Thank you, senator.
It is very important to highlight that we are actually providing all of our mandate of the provision of services through freelancers. The Translation Bureau is the largest employer of interpreters.
I assume, Senator Campbell, you mean interpretation and not translation. The small nuance is that translation is transcribing written words. I suspect that you were speaking of simultaneous translation of the spoken word, so I will assume that.
We are the largest employer of interpreters in Canada. We have 65 official language interpreters, so it is not a big number for being the largest employer. We rely on 56 freelance interpreters that are on a standing offer with us to provide services to the Senate, the House and other clients.
The difference between the services that the Translation Bureau offers is the rigorous accreditation program that all Translation Bureau interpreters must pass. This touches on capacity. There are approximately three to five students who graduate from the two interpretation master’s programs in Canada, and we hire all of those who pass the accreditation program of the Translation Bureau.
Essentially, we can guarantee quality. It is true that there are other interpretation firms offering services that have varying degrees of quality or quality guarantee. We do our best to recruit not only internally, so hiring new translators from universities, but also increasing the roster of freelancers. We’re actively working, for example, with the two universities that have master’s programs. We send our seasoned interpreters to teach in the interpretation program, but the interpreter profession is a shortage group, not only in Canada but globally. So we’re competing for talent on a global scale.
Senator Campbell: If I have all of these credentials and everything, is there a test that I come to you to take and I pass or fail, and then could be put on a list or maybe even hired? Is there such a test?
Ms. Séguin: Yes, absolutely. I will let my colleague Matthew Ball answer that question.
Matthew Ball, Vice-President, Service to Parliament and Interpretation, Translation Bureau: Yes, we do have a rigorous accreditation program and we test annually. In the year when we pivoted to virtual events, we actually transitioned our testing from in-person tests to a platform. Through this testing program, we identify two types of candidates: People who pass our exam and who can provide services either as a contractor, a freelance contractor basis, or we hire people who pass our accreditation tests.
We also have a second category, where we have candidates who do quite well and demonstrate promise on our tests, but they are not quite at the level to provide services directly to parliamentarians. We hire those candidates as interns on a two-year basis. During that time we provide them with an intensive training program in order for them to improve their skills and to be able to successfully pass our accreditation test.
Senator Campbell: Thank you very much.
Mr. Ball: We do this, as I said, on an annual basis.
[Translation]
Senator Forest: Ms. Séguin, I use the interpretation services all the time. I thank you for your efforts. I understand that it can be frustrating to not have the right equipment to facilitate the work. It’s not really a question, but a comment: Some interpreters, usually men, have much lower timbres than their female counterparts. Are there any adjustments to the pitch? Because in some cases, we understand the interpreter very well and in others, it is very difficult. While you need the right equipment, do you do tests to check the pitch of voices that are lower rather than higher?
Ms. Séguin: Thank you for that very interesting question, Senator Forest. It is a pleasure to see you. I will ask Mr. Ball, who is a conference interpreter, to answer this question, which we frequently hear.
Mr. Ball: That is a good question you raise, Senator Forest. It is a technical issue. The Translation Bureau provides professional interpretation services. I often make the analogy of software versus equipment and hardware. This is a question that I advise you to ask your technical authorities, because they are the ones who manipulate the parameters in their system and their interpretation console. This is a good representation of the issues that we face in the virtual domain, because all the characteristics of sound have changed since this shift.
[English]
Senator Marshall: You spoke about the challenges of virtual sittings and you were talking about the recruitment headaches staff are experiencing and the intensity of the virtual meetings. What sorts of other challenges does it present?
Are you finding that there is an increase in resignations, or a larger turnover of staff, and increased sick leave usage? Could you just kind of round that out and expand it a little bit?
Ms. Séguin: Yes. Thank you very much for the question and the concern as well, Senator Marshall.
Yes, in terms of our recruitment and retention, I did mention that interpretation was a shortage group, not only in Canada but abroad. Over the course of the last three years, we were able to hire 9 new interpreters, but during the same time, 12 interpreters retired. What is thankful is we do recuperate some interpreters because most of our freelance interpreters spend their careers at the Translation Bureau and become freelancers. We have also lost interpreters on our freelance roster.
Just to give you a couple of numbers, at present, we have 56 freelance interpreters that offer services to both houses of Parliament. In 2019-20, we had 76 interpreters. Some of the reasons that explain that are demographics. Interpreters are frequently on their second or third career. There are also some interpreters who have been a little bit discouraged with all of the new technology and the hybrid setting. That is on the hiring and retention side.
On the health and safety side, I would say that because we’re still struggling to adapt, we’re seeing an increase in the health and safety incident reports that are being submitted. Since 2020, we’ve had at least 250 incident reports that have been filed by our employee interpreters and our staff are reporting incidents like increased tinnitus, headaches and earaches. So we have 44 interpreters available to interpret full time, but we have had to accommodate 10 interpreters with part-time work and give them more rest periods. And this is based on advice from their doctors.
I think that gives you a sense of the capacity that is kind of dwindling, but I also want to reassure honourable senators that we are working double-time on building capacity in any way that we can.
Senator Marshall: That is very important for us to know. Thank you for that.
Senator Tannas: Ms. Séguin, how do you track the activity? Do you monitor or count the number of sessions in a year? Is it the number of hours? How do you track it?
Ms. Séguin: That is a very good question. We consult with our client at Senate Administration as well as with other clients very closely.
We count interpretation in hours and translation in words, typically. We do also track the number of events to be covered but there are daily fluctuations. There are so many changes at the last minute. For example, today we have five committees running at the Senate and, oftentimes, we will get requests to extend the committees. One committee can be two hours, another one can be four or five. So we do count.
The most reliable quantum is the number of hours and we do track that. We know how many hours we have provided service to each client, including the Senate.
Senator Tannas: Could you provide us with your 2020-21 hours provided to the Senate and the 2020-21 hours provided to the House of Commons? Would you be able to do that without too much trouble?
Ms. Séguin: Thank you very much. I think that I will consult with our clients at the Senate Administration. I am able to provide the number of hours for Senate without any issues. I would like to make sure that I am not infringing on anyone’s territory by giving information about the other chamber, the House of Commons. It is certainly something that, in consultation with the Senate Administration, is information that may already be available, but I commit to looking into that, senator.
Senator Tannas: Okay. Thank you. I will ask the clerk that, when she receives that information or response, she provides it to me.
Senator Duncan: I would also like to thank the Translation Bureau for all of the work that you do from coast to coast to coast. The translation has been excellent in every committee that I have participated in. Thank you so much.
I would like to speak for a moment about Indigenous languages. There are many Indigenous languages throughout Canada. Senator Patterson has spoken in the Senate in Inuktitut, and I know Inuktitut is often spoken in Nunavut. It’s a key language. I have watched their legislature speak in Inuktitut. I know you are incredibly busy and this is probably on the corner of someone’s desk, but I’m wondering what the requests have been for other Indigenous language translation services and if that is in the long-range planning for the Translation Bureau?
Ms. Séguin: I thank you for your question, Senator Duncan. I appreciate all of the honourable senators’ acknowledgement of the great work of the Translation Bureau. Matthew and I will pass that along to all of the team.
I would like to reassure you, Senator Duncan, that Indigenous languages are very much a priority for the Translation Bureau. At present, we are providing Indigenous languages translation and interpretation services as well as terminology services for more than 20 different clients, government institutions. For example, during COVID, we provided the Public Health Agency of Canada with COVID-related information in more than 12 different Indigenous languages and dialects.
We’re providing all of the linguistic support for the Governor General Mary Simon, interpretation in Innu as well as all of the translation. After this meeting, I have a meeting with Commissioner Ignace, the new Indigenous languages commissioner in Canada, and his directors. We will be providing services to the commissioner.
We have a roster of about 100 language keepers and speakers from communities across Canada, and we have capacity at the present time to provide services in 50 languages and dialects. So we’re available to provide services to the honourable senators at any time you wish, although I would say we probably need a little bit more planning time to be able to find the appropriate person who can speak the language or the dialect that you are looking for.
But you can expect to see and hear even more words being spoken in these important languages in both houses of Parliament.
Senator Duncan: If you could elaborate, is there any federal-provincial, provincial-territorial cooperation in your efforts? For example, there is a Yukon Native Language Centre at Yukon University that is funded, in part, through the Yukon government. Would your work cooperate with them, or is it your own initiatives?
Ms. Séguin: Thank you. That is a very good question. We at the Translation Bureau are part of Public Services and Procurement Canada, and our legislative mandate indicates that we must provide a service when we are asked for all languages, including Indigenous languages. So we are not the federal government organization that has the mandate for policy or programs. That lies with Canadian Heritage, as well as CIRNAC and others, but we collaborate very closely with them.
I should also mention the collaboration that is blooming with the Commissioner of Indigenous Languages, because we’re always trying to find allies, and I have met with some honourable senators that have Indigenous origins. We’re always looking for allies to build the roster that we have so we can expand the depth and breadth. For some languages, we only have one or two individuals who can speak the language.
So there are no FPT programs or initiatives per se because we don’t have a program or policy mandate, but we do collaborate with federal agencies that have those responsibilities.
The Chair: I see no other questions from senators, so I will end with two questions of my own.
Ms. Séguin, you have very eloquently and carefully outlined why your interpretation capacity has gone down with the onset of hybrid. I would hope that hybrid will continue to diminish as we go forward. I’m not sure the level will get to zero, but it will diminish. When it starts diminishing, can we assume that your capacity goes up as we go back to where things were pre‑pandemic? Or will your capacity remain low, as it is today?
Ms. Séguin: If you wish, I can answer that first question, chair.
The Chair: Yes, please.
Ms. Séguin: I think that currently we’re operating under the hybrid assumption — applying the working conditions that we put in place in 2019, as we’re adjusting not only on the technical side but on the health and safety side.
I would say that a big factor that will help us kind of come back to normal is addressing the sound quality issues. We have made a lot of progress. National Research Council Canada has confirmed that the consoles and equipment provide excellent protection against sound quantity issues, so acoustic shock, but we still are delivering suboptimal sound quality into the ears of our interpreters. That is one track that we’re collaborating on very extensively with the House of Commons IT experts. That is one thing.
In terms of coming back to normal, I think that the best scenario for sound quality is everyone is in one room like it used to be in the good old days. But as soon as there are one or more participants who are participating remotely, until our sound quality issues are addressed, I think that we are still looking at the capacity that we have now. But we’re also working on boosting capacity by hiring and trying to recruit more interpreters.
The Chair: Let me make sure that I understand that. So you are saying the issue is not whether there are half of the members are hybrid; even if one member is hybrid, it reduces your capacity. But doesn’t that go down? I would hope that your capacity would go up if there was only one person on a committee or in the Senate that’s away as opposed to half. I look at today: Half are away and half are in the room. Let’s say that became 80% in the room and 20% away. Would that improve your capacity?
Ms. Séguin: That is a very logical assumption. I think that assuming we had the ISO level sound quality delivered the technology stack that we have, we could assume that. This is exactly what we’ve codified in our contracts with freelancers. We have defined a hybrid setting as having more than 50 participants participating in person or remotely as a remote meeting.
But right now we have checked the box on the sound quantity issue; we need to check the box on the sound quality issue. And, Senator Marwah, I can assure you that we are collaborating with 20 global institutions, including the European Union, European Parliament, NATO, OECD. Everyone is applying kind of the same technical requirements, adjusting their work in order to find a way, until they find a way to provide a safe environment for their employees and their freelancers.
So the short answer is it’s not that easy. I don’t want to be ambiguous about the expectations. We’re still in this format until we can get high-quality sound. But it is improving. I want you to rest assured that we’re working very closely with Senate Administration but also the House IT team to fix the sound quality issues.
The Chair: I think that brings me to my last question, which you have touched on already. What else can we do, in the Senate or Senate Administration, that will help you increase your capacity? Are there any other measures that we should consider taking here that can help you increase your capacity and, hence, provide better service — or more services to us, not better; it’s already very good. It’s really the amount of services, not quality. What else can we do?
Ms. Séguin: I appreciate that. Thank you for your offer. I have to say that since the beginning of this pandemic, honourable senators have been exemplary in the adoption of your behaviours to ensure health and safety but also at the same time reduce interruptions and help with the quality.
In terms of doing more, I think that you are doing a lot. With our client in Senate Administration, we have a partnership agreement. We’re very clear on what your priorities are. That’s very helpful. We are assigning our resources based on the priorities that you have articulated in the Senate Room Allocation Policy. So that is codified in our agreement. When we have additional capacity, we basically send it your way. What we could ask is, basically, as much planning as possible in advance. What makes it complicated for us is those requests to change with very short-term notice. That makes it complicated, making sure we send our humans to the right spot. But you are already exemplary in your planning and the adoption of your behaviour, so we appreciate that. Thank you very much.
The Chair: Colleagues, there are no other questions from senators. I think the last item on the agenda is comments by Marie-Eve. Do you have any comments to make on the primary interface with the Translation Bureau? I would like to hear your side of any comments you would like to make.
Marie-Eve Belzile, Principal Clerk, Parliamentary Exchanges and Protocol, International and Interparliamentary Affairs: If you allow me, I’ll talk a little bit about my role. Thank you, first of all, for inviting me and my colleagues from the Translation Bureau to talk about the translation services to the Senate and the revised partnership agreement.
First, I’d like to briefly explain my role as the Senate Administration representative who is responsible for the partnership agreement between the Senate and the Translation Bureau.
In this capacity, my role is to renegotiate the partnership agreement; work to ensure that the terms of the agreement are respected; assist the Translation Bureau in perfecting their feedback process for their Senate clients; and to ensure that regular meetings between the Senate Administration managers and the Translation Bureau take place to discuss ongoing issues so that the bureau is able to meet the highest standards for services rendered to the Senate.
[Translation]
Since the start of the pandemic, this role has taken on a new dimension. The main challenges at the beginning of the pandemic were to ensure that the Senate’s planned virtual and hybrid parliamentary activities could be supported by the interpretation services. A framework that presented several technological and logistical challenges was developed to address these challenges. The services could be provided, allowing the continuity of the Senate’s various parliamentary activities. On the other hand, the services encountered new difficulties, particularly on the technological front, and we worked together to address these difficulties along the way, putting in place — as Ms. Séguin mentioned — preventive and protective measures, such as training sessions on Zoom, sound tests before each meeting, the wearing of headphones with microphones and so on.
However, the real issue, as the pandemic progressed, was the resources available to support the Senate’s activities as they resumed a more sustained pace.
[English]
In this regard, my role was to communicate the expectations of the Senate, as well as observed and reported problems, to the Translation Bureau in order to find ways to improve the services rendered by the bureau to the Senate. Along with other Senate Administration managers responsible for the delivery of core parliamentary functions, I met more frequently with Translation Bureau officials as the pandemic progressed.
Monthly meetings with the bureau to discuss service levels and emerging issues continued, and weekly meetings between the administration officials, the bureau, the House of Commons and the Library of Parliament were added during sitting weeks so that all parties could share upcoming business to allow the bureau to better plan and prepare for potential urgent business and heavier workloads and in order for the Translation Bureau to share their constraints, concerns or limitations.
This information was relayed to senators by Senate Administration officials on a regular basis to assist with the decision making on Senate activities and priorities.
In parallel to this, this year, we were able to conclude the negotiations of the five-year review of the partnership agreement. This agreement defines the type and level of services that the bureau provides to the Senate and to senators. Its main purpose is to describe the roles and responsibilities of the participants with respect to required language services, expected performance against service standards, client relationship management and reporting requirements. This agreement does not address the resources provided to the Senate in terms of number of parliamentary events interpreted per week nor does it provide comparison with the resources provided to the other chamber.
While it plays a useful role in guiding the work of the bureau, the bureau is to provide language services to the Senate, whether or not an agreement is in place, in accordance with its legal obligations under the Translation Bureau Act.
As a result of close collaboration with the Translation Bureau, issues related to the availability of resources to serve the Senate were taken into consideration in the final stages of negotiations for the partnership agreement. While the agreement cannot provide for the allocation of resources from the Translation Bureau — an issue only the Translation Bureau can address — clauses were added to help alleviate some of the pressure points by providing a mechanism for prioritizing Senate activities that align with senators’ decisions.
As a result, the agreement now provides for the prioritization of services to Senate sittings first, followed by committee meetings and caucus and group meetings, followed by a series of other activities provided for in the Senate Room Allocation Policy.
[Translation]
The revised agreement should therefore provide greater clarity and transparency. It responds to CIBA’s 2018 recommendations on language services and aligns with Senate policies. It also includes detailed clauses on translation, interpretation, sign language interpretation, and more details on translation and interpretation into Indigenous and foreign languages.
[English]
For the first time, there’s also an appendix in the new agreement that describes best practices for conducting virtual and hybrid meetings to prevent workplace injuries to interpreters. Given the impact that workplace injuries have on the Translation Bureau’s capacity, as you have heard, continuing this best practice if and when individuals participate in Senate activities remotely would be helpful.
[Translation]
Finally, I would like to thank the Translation Bureau staff for their perseverance and availability in negotiating the new clauses of the agreement, and I hope that it will be useful to both our institutions.
I am available to you, senators, in collaboration with Ms. Séguin and Mr. Ball, to answer your questions about the new agreement. Thank you.
[English]
The Chair: Colleagues, are there any questions for Marie-Eve? I think we have covered off the questions previously, so thank you.
I do have the partnership agreement that we have to renew with the Translation Bureau, so can I have a mover for the following motion:
That the revision of the Partnership Agreement with the Translation Bureau for the provision of linguistics services be approved.
Senator Dean moves the motion. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion? Seeing no objections, it’s carried.
Thank you, Marie-Eve, Mr. Ball and Ms. Séguin. It’s very good of you to make the time to be with us.
Colleagues, item 6 concerns the creation of the advisory working group on environment and sustainable development. As you are aware, senators, the motion introduced by Senator Deacon regarding the Senate’s Environmental and Sustainability Policy Statement was approved in the Senate on March 29. As such, CIBA was provided with a mandate to examine the feasibility of implementing programs to reduce the Senate’s carbon footprint to net zero by 2030. It is therefore necessary for us to recreate the Advisory Working Group on Environment and Sustainability. Colleagues, included in your package is a draft wording of the motion to create the advisory working group. Senators, are there any comments or questions?
Senator Marshall: Is there some requirement for the advisory working group to report back to CIBA? I noticed that there’s some — I’m trying to find it there now — external expertise. A dollar amount will be attached to that, and I’m on the Estimates Subcommittee, so I’m always concerned about dollars.
Are we just going to let them proceed to do whatever, or is there going to be some sort of accountability to CIBA during their work?
The Chair: Senator Marshall, on the dollar amount, they don’t have an open blank cheque. They have to come back to CIBA to get approval of the amount. That’s number one. And they have to give a report no later than December 31 of this year.
But first, the hiring of an outside advisor —
Senator Marshall: Is it in here that they have to come back to that?
The Chair: Yes, this is at the bottom of the motion. If you look at the creation on the attachment provided to the notice, there’s an item that says no later than December 31.
Senator Marshall: That’s the reporting back. What about coming back to get the external expertise to hire?
The Chair: I assume they don’t have any money, so they’ll have to go through the procurement policy and procurement process, and then they have to come to us for approval.
Senator Marshall: Perfect. Thank you very much.
The Chair: Could I have a mover for the following motion:
That the Advisory Working Group on Environment and Sustainability be established and authorized to examine the feasibility of implementing programs to establish:
(a) an accountability framework and annual reporting cycle;
(b) the promotion of climate-friendly transportation policies and reduced travel;
(c) enhanced recycling and minimizing waste;
(d) a digital-first approach and reduction in printing;
(e) support from central agencies to allow the Senate to charge carbon offsets as part of operating a sustainable Senate; and
(f) a process for senators and their offices to propose environmental and sustainability recommendations;
That the advisory working group oversee the request for proposals process to secure external expertise in accordance with recommendation 9 of the Advisory Working Group on Environment and Sustainability report, dated November 2021;
That the advisory working group be composed of 5 senators working collectively;
That the following senators be named as members of the advisory working group:
The Honourable Senator Anderson;
The Honourable Senator Black;
The Honourable Senator Deacon;
The Honourable Senator LaBoucane-Benson; and
The Honourable Senator Smith;
That the advisory working group be empowered to elect a chair;
That the advisory working group provide a report on progress as required; and
That the advisory working group present its final report to the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration no later than December 31, 2022.
Senator Bovey moves the motion. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion? Seeing no objections, I declare the motion carried.
Colleagues, that brings us to other business. Are there any other items on public business? If not, the meeting is now adjourned.
(The committee adjourned.)