THE STANDING COMMITTEE ON INTERNAL ECONOMY, BUDGETS AND ADMINISTRATION
EVIDENCE
OTTAWA, Thursday, October 27, 2022
The Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration met with videoconference this day at 9:00 a.m. [ET], in camera; and, in public, pursuant to rule 12-7(1), to consider financial and administrative matters.
Senator Lucie Moncion (Chair) in the chair.
(The committee continued in camera.)
(The committee resumed in public.)
[Translation]
The Chair: Good morning, senators and everyone online with us. My name is Lucie Moncion. I’m a senator from Ontario, and I have the privilege of chairing the Standing Senate Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration. The meeting started in camera, and we’re now continuing in public.
I’d like to introduce the senators taking part in this meeting: Senator Claude Carignan, P.C., from Quebec; Senator Jean-Guy Dagenais from Quebec; Senator Dennis Dawson from Quebec; Senator Donna Dasko from Ontario; Senator Colin Deacon from Nova Scotia; Senator Clément Gignac from Quebec; Senator Leo Housakos from Quebec; Senator Tony Loffreda from Quebec; Senator Donald Neil Plett from Manitoba; Senator Raymonde Saint-Germain from Quebec; Senator Judith G. Seidman from Quebec; Senator Scott Tannas from Alberta; Senator Woo from British Columbia; and Senator Raymonde Gagné from Manitoba.
I’d also like to welcome everyone who is watching our proceedings across the country.
Dear colleagues, with your indulgence, we need to address two items in particular because we don’t have much time left. We’ll now move on to item 12, followed by a motion proposed by Senator Dagenais.
If we have more time, we’ll come back to the rest of the agenda.
[English]
The next item is concerning funding to host the 70th Annual Session for the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Ms. Julie Dzerowicz, Member of Parliament, Chair of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association, will lead the presentation. Senator Saint-Germain, Jeremy LeBlanc and Marie-Ève Belzile will assist with this item.
As usual, this presentation will be followed by time for questions. Ms. Dzerowicz, the floor is yours.
Julie Dzerowicz, Member of Parliament for Davenport: Good morning, and thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, committee members. It’s a pleasure for me to be here this morning.
I come before you today to ask for your approval for Canada to host the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Annual Session in November 2024 in Montreal.
Earlier this summer, the executive committee of the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association asked the International and Interparliamentary Affairs directorate, or IIA, to prepare a draft budget. I believe you have a copy of that draft budget as well as a briefing note before you.
In early October, the Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association adopted a draft budget that was presented to us by IIA, and then we submitted it to JIC for their approval. We did go to JIC at their October meeting, and they also approved it. This is our next step in the whole process.
The budget is in line with the typical costs and follows the guidelines for annual sessions held in Canada and meets all the requirements of the International Secretariat of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. It has been prepared to take into account the number of participants, which, according to the International Secretariat, will be 650 people.
I have with me Jeremy LeBlanc, who is the Director General of IIA. He’s able to answer any specific questions about the budget, if you have any. Perhaps I’ll mention three more additional points.
When I was in Lithuania, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Secretary General came up to me personally to ask if we would consider hosting the session. As we all know, Russia has invaded Ukraine. It has caused more than the normal amount of stress and consternation amongst all of the NATO European countries. It is, obviously, causing us great issues here in Canada as well, but they feel that we might have a bit more ability to take on hosting the session.
The other thing is that in the fall of 2024, I’m not quite sure where we will be, but I know that we will want to be present at a conversation that is going to be talking about what’s next. Hopefully, the war will be over by then, but we will want to be able to host some sort of a conversation or at least be part of a conversation, and hosting it here in Canada allows us to have quite a leadership role in this type of a conversation.
Those are the remarks I’d like to make. I know you’re behind in your agenda, so thank you for your time and consideration, and I’m able to answer any questions you might have.
The Chair: Thank you, Ms. Dzerowicz. Are there any questions for Mr. LeBlanc, Ms. Saint-Germain or Ms. Dzerowicz?
If not, it is moved by the Honourable Senator Saint-Germain that:
That approval be granted to host the 70th Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Montreal, in November 2024;
That the funding, excluding Employee Benefit Plan, be approved as follows:
$214,568 for 2023-2024
$1,785,318 for 2024-2025, and;
That the total cost be shared using the usual formula (30% Senate, 70% House of Commons) between the Senate ($599,966) and the House of Commons ($1,399,920).
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion? Carried. Thank you very much.
We will now go to Senator Dagenais. You have a motion to propose to this committee.
[Translation]
Senator Dagenais: I move that the Honourable Senator Tannas be elected deputy chair of the committee.
[English]
The Chair: You heard the motion. Are there any questions or comments?
An Hon. Senator: Maybe a speech.
The Chair: Thank you. On this lovely note, are we all in agreement, colleagues?
Thank you. The motion is carried.
We will go back in our agenda for a few more items. We will move to item 10, the adoption of the minutes of our last meeting. You have received the information, which is in your package, from October 6.
Can I have a mover for the following motion:
That the Minutes of Proceedings of Thursday, October 6, 2022, be adopted.
Senator Gagné moves the motion. Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
The Chair: Carried.
We will move to item 11. I’m not sure we have enough time to look at the report.
[Translation]
Senator Saint-Germain: Colleagues, as co-chair of the Joint Interparliamentary Council, I am pleased to present the annual report of parliamentary associations on their activities and expenditures for the 2021-22 fiscal year.
As in the previous fiscal year, most parliamentary associations were limited in their international activities during this period, as the moratorium on international travel imposed by the Joint Interparliamentary Council during the pandemic wasn’t lifted until April 1, 2022. So the vast majority of the activities took place virtually.
As a result, we are seeing a 7.5% increase in the number of virtual meetings and webinars held during the fiscal year. Eight associations were able to hold annual general meetings virtually, with the Joint Interparliamentary Council allowing those that did not have a vacant chair position to not hold an annual general meeting. As a result, some chairs were reappointed.
The budget envelope for association activities was $4.3 million, of which $1.4 million was spent for a utilization ratio of 34%; this leaves $2.9 million unspent and therefore surplus, subject to approximately $100,000 used for conferences.
The net surplus at year-end is $2,730,758 exactly.
You can also see from the report that there were two missions in the last fiscal year: one to take part in an event in Canada and a second for which the Joint Interparliamentary Council granted an exemption to the moratorium to allow an association president, in this case the Assemblée parlementaire de la Francophonie, the APF, to attend an event scheduled two weeks before the moratorium was officially lifted. Canada will be hosting the APF this year.
So there’s a brief summary of the activities of the associations, but there’s a lot more detail in the report. If you have any questions now or even after the meeting, I’d be pleased to answer them with the clerk of the Joint Interparliamentary Council, Jeremy LeBlanc.
The Chair: Thank you. Are there any questions?
Senator Dawson: I’d like to take advantage of Jeremy’s presence. I chair the Joint Interparliamentary Council’s subcommittee on the modernization of the rules. As you know, the rules were written when there was the opposition and the government; today there are four caucuses. Most of the rules include the nomenclature, the government. There is no government in the Senate; there are a few people who represent the government, but we need to modernize the rules.
However, members of Parliament have asked us, as senators, to get along. I would therefore like to ask the committee to perhaps mandate senators who are members of the Standing Committee on Internal Economy, Budgets and Administration with setting up a meeting with the leaders of each group and the facilitators. The purpose is to hold a meeting to see how we are going to modernize our component.
The Joint Interparliamentary Council functions as it did before, but the Senate is very different. For our part, we absolutely must modernize the application of these rules.
In the table, you’ll see that there are dozens of co-chair positions that are vacant, because the co-chair isn’t held by a government representative. Since there is no government representative, the positions are vacant. As a result, we’ll never be able to chair NATO, the Interparliamentary Union, or the APF, because the rules don’t allow us to do so.
I’m asking for your cooperation so that we can modernize the rules. Perhaps not today, but we should talk to the people involved, the co-chair of the Joint Interparliamentary Council is here, as well as the representative of the subcommittee, so that we can have the mandate to do what needs to be done.
Hon. Raymonde Saint-Germain: I understand the objective you’re seeking, and I share it, Senator Dawson, but I believe that the subcommittee is already mandated by the joint committee, and that with the cooperation of all the members representing all the groups, we already have the mandate to meet.
You do chair the subcommittee, and I think with Senator Plett, Senator Downe, and yourself, we’ll be able to find a convenient time to meet. We will report back to you.
The Chair: Are you satisfied with the answer?
Senator Dawson: We’ll see at the meeting.
The Chair: Okay. Thank you very much.
If there are no further questions, Senator Saint-Germain moved that the Joint Interparliamentary Council’s 2021-2022 Report on Parliamentary Associations’ Activities and Expenditures for the 2021-22 fiscal year be tabled in the Senate.
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
[English]
The Chair: Carried. Colleagues, you have been fantastic.
We haven’t finished our agenda once again, but we have items that are not as important. We’ve done great work today. We had great discussions. Thank you all. We will be bringing back all of these items at our next meeting, and we will try to catch up on our agenda.
Thank you very much. Have a great day.
(The committee adjourned.)