INCLUSIVE, ACCESSIBLE, ACCOUNTABLE AND STRONG PARLIAMENTS
INCLUSIVE, ACCESSIBLE, ACCOUNTABLE AND STRONG PARLIAMENTS: THE CORNERSTONE OF DEMOCRACY AND ESSENTIAL FOR DEVELOPMENT The CPA President and the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada looks forward to the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and welcomes delegates. As CPA President and the Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada, I would like to welcome you to the 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference on behalf of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Although we have not had the pleasure of welcoming you to Canada since 2004, our excitement this year is unquestionably much greater. After more than two years of the pandemic, I feel we can truly appreciate this opportunity to meet in person. Technology has helped us, but I think you will agree there is no substitute for the warmth of human contact. You have been invited to the capital of Nova Scotia to discuss an important topic: how can our Parliaments be strong, inclusive, accountable and accessible? In Canada and elsewhere, we saw how Parliaments were essential services in times of crisis. For example, they approved legislation and measures to help people affected by COVID-19, whether by the disease itself or by job losses due to the various lockdowns. We also realised that the more marginalised groups in our societies suffered more from the impact of the pandemic. This shows the need to boost our inclusiveness to keep in touch with our citizens and the daily challenges they face. At the same time, we had to reinvent ourselves to maintain and increase our accessibility and transparency by communicating much more often with our fellow citizens. In this article, I will take you step by step through each of these issues. I will try to illustrate how the Canadian House of Commons was able to deal with these difficult circumstances. A strong Parliament: In times of crisis In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared a global COVID-19 pandemic. Most governments imposed shutdowns of places where people gather, such as restaurants, schools,
convention centres and stadiums. The purpose was to limit social contacts and, in turn, the spread of the virus. At first, the Canadian House of Commons took the same approach: it initially adjourned its proceedings for a few weeks. When Members realised that the situation would persist, it began to consider potential solutions. We had to continue to play our part; we had to be there for the people. I recounted this extraordinary journey in an article published in The Parliamentarian earlier this year.1 I will not go into detail here, but the ability of the House to adapt gradually - with the help of keen and dedicated administrative staff and through innovative solutions such as hybrid work and electronic voting - was admirable. It might have been easy to minimise Parliament’s role during the crisis. But that is not what Canadian Parliamentarians chose to do. They chose to roll up their sleeves and face those challenges. As a result, the House passed more than a dozen Bills directly related to the pandemic. Our Committees held nearly 1,000 meetings in virtual or hybrid mode last year, almost as many as in 2019. Hundreds of hours of debate took place to take stock of pandemic management. It was also decided to provide Members with additional resources to support their constituents during the pandemic. Parliamentary privilege and other tools If we set aside the last two years and ask ourselves what the source of a Legislature’s strength is, we usually think of its independence from the Executive and the Judiciary. In this regard, our House is fortunate. When modern Canada was established in 1867, its Parliament was empowered to exercise the privileges enjoyed by the British Parliament in the 'Westminster' model. Parliamentary privilege is the main tool available to us as Parliamentarians to fulfill
Hon. Anthony Rota, MP
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.
2 | The Parliamentarian | 2022: Issue Two | 65th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference