SPECIAL REPORT: PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS OF CANADA’S RESPONSE TO COVID-19: STEP-BY-STEP On 13 March 2020, the Canadian House of Commons adopted a motion to adjourn until Monday 20 April. On the surface, this may not appear particularly remarkable. However, this would be the first step of a long journey - one that continues, and from which we are still learning and growing. The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused great hardship, but the resilience, commitment, and ingenuity of Canada’s House of Commons is something for which I am deeply grateful. It quickly became apparent that the disruption to the regular proceedings of the House would not be brief. Forging the way ahead, members of the House of Commons were already devising ways for the House to convene and for constituents across the country to remain connected to their representatives. In the two years that followed the March 2020 adjournment, members of all parties, with the support of the House Administration, navigated the trials and tribulations of formulating and implementing a hybrid Parliament system so that all 338 Members could attend sittings by videoconference as needed, participate in the decisionmaking process by using electronic voting application, and continue to serve their constituents and all Canadians amid this pandemic. The collaboration between all those involved has been extraordinary, and Canadians can be proud of their Parliamentarians. The many steps Reflecting on those first months and the unknowns that lay before us, I marvel at the work we have done since the outbreak of the pandemic. On 24 March 2020, the House was recalled and empowered two Standing Committees - Health and Finance - to meet by teleconference or videoconference to receive evidence in relation to COVID-19.
Hon. Anthony Rota, MP
On 11 April, the House of Commons was recalled again and by motion added more Committees to the list permitted to meet. One of these Committees, the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs (PROC) was instructed to study ways in which Members could fulfill their parliamentary duties while the House stood adjourned. The recall of the House was something that had only happened 12 times since Confederation, but it would be recalled six more times through the summer to pass emergency legislation to support Canadians during the pandemic until Parliament was prorogued on 18 August. On 20 April, the House agreed by unanimous consent to create a special Committee mandated to examine the national response to COVID-19: COVI. The motion creating this special Committee also established that it would be composed of every Member of Parliament and be chaired by the Speaker. Members attending proceedings of this special Committee received authorization from the House to do so by videoconference. In this critical time, COVI offered an important forum for the opposition to put questions to the government - a vital part of the democratic process. It also provided the Administration’s technical teams with valuable opportunities to plan, test, and refine the machinations of supporting large virtual sittings. Meanwhile, I appeared before PROC four times to inform its discussions and decision-making. During my appearances, I reaffirmed that the House Administration remained committed to providing all necessary operational support for Members to sit and hold meetings in a format of their choosing and in a way that would respect health and safety protocols, while maintaining their parliamentary rights and privileges. PROC worked carefully to assess the requirements that would enable Parliament to sit safely. Any adopted model would need
is the 37th Speaker of the House of Commons in the Parliament of Canada and the current CPA President as the host of the upcoming 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. In April 2020, he was also appointed Chair of the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic (COVI). He is the Member for the electoral district of Nipissing-Timiskaming and other previous parliamentary roles have included Chair of the Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs of the Standing Committee on National Defence as well as Assistant Deputy Speaker and Assistant Deputy Chair of Committees of the Whole. Prior to his election in 2004, he worked in the field of international technology transfer and in the financial and real estate sector.
22 | The Parliamentarian | 2022: Issue One | 100 years of publishing
