QUESTION PERIOD — Business of the Senate
Cost of Hybrid Chamber Sittings
December 9, 2020
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. I was troubled by your answers to questions posed by our colleague Senator Batters yesterday. I want to make some things perfectly clear. First, I agreed to the hybrid sittings of the Senate during this ongoing pandemic and I still do. Second, Senator Batters does not need help from me or anyone else to explain her questions on her behalf. She is extremely capable of raising issues that concern her. It is your job as the government leader to obtain answers for all honourable senators, whether you like the question or not.
We were presented with a $400,000 budget for hybrid sittings. Since we are only a few days away from this motion coming to an end, I think you should be able to — and I’m asking you to — provide this chamber with a clear update on the costs, as you have been asked to do so twice now by Senator Batters and once by me. This is not irresponsible or a strange request, as you said on Tuesday, it is a fiscal matter and a legitimate one.
Thank you, honourable senator. I reread the blues and wanted to repeat what I said in response to Senator Batters’ legitimate question; that these are indeed legitimate questions. The record will show that I undertook to endeavour to get the answers. I am also very glad, Senator Plett, that you have repeated your support for hybrid sittings during the ongoing pandemic because, alas, we are still in the thick of it.
I will simply repeat that I believe that hybrid sittings are a necessary institution to allow us to do our work on behalf of Canadians and to protect staff, administration, senators’ families and friends from the risks that we might inadvertently pose. That said, I will endeavour to get you the answer as quickly as I can.
Senator Gold, we are going to be expected to vote on a motion in the near future on extending these hybrid sittings. As we know, it expires on December 18. Whether it is a $400,000 budget or the hundreds of billions of dollars this government has spent in recent months, we are asking about the expenditure of taxpayers’ dollars, period. The government should be able to provide taxpayers with accountability for every dollar spent. It is clear that bean-counting, as you suggested, is of no interest whatsoever to your government. You stopped providing biweekly reports on emergency spending months ago and you haven’t presented a budget in 21 months.
Asking questions in Parliament is one of the only ways we have to try to get accountability for taxpayers, as Conservatives like to do. It is part of our job and part of your job; or are you trying to put an end to this as well?
Honourable senators, I can only repeat, because clearly my attempts at being clear, direct and transparent are not being successful. It is a legitimate question and I will endeavour to get the answer. But the assumptions in your question, honourable senator, are simply incorrect. This government is committed to helping Canadians. The billions of dollars to which you referred to are helping Canadians and Canada weather this unprecedented storm.
When we do emerge from this horrible crisis, thanks to the efforts of all Canadians to obey and follow the rules that are recommended to them by public health authorities, and thanks to the ability — as soon as possible, we hope — of more Canadians to benefit from the vaccines that were procured by this government, and at such time as the economy returns to the healthy state that it was in when we entered this crisis, all Canadians should be grateful to this chamber, to the Parliament of Canada and to the government for the initiatives that it took to do us well through these challenging times.
