Parliament returns Monday with a vaccine mandate in place

OTTAWA -

Two months after the 2021 federal election, the 44th Parliament officially begins on Monday, followed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau laying out his key priorities for his minority Liberal government in a speech from the throne on Tuesday.

With the new batch of MPs getting to work, the first few days will include a heavy dose of procedure and formalities, but also a series of key decisions. One big difference this time around is there’ll be a vaccine mandate in place.

So, how will it all work? What happens after these key opening moments pass? When will Canadians be able to visit Parliament Hill again? And, what do we know so far about whether MPs can keep doing their jobs from home?

Here's a rundown of some of the key elements involved in the opening of the new Parliament.

VACCINE MANDATES COME INTO EFFECT

As of Monday, Nov. 22, a vaccine mandate will be in effect for anyone who wants to enter the House of Commons and Senate buildings within the parliamentary precinct. This means that MPs and senators, as well as their staff and anyone who works in these spaces like reporters, will have to be fully vaccinated and show their proof in order to enter.

A narrow exception is being offered to individuals who have a medical exemption. Those granted exemptions will have to provide proof of a recent negative COVID-19 rapid antigen test to be able to come to work in-person. 

While all Liberal, Bloc Quebecois, NDP, and Green MPs are fully vaccinated, the Conservatives have not confirmed how many of their MPs have rolled up their sleeves. While most Conservative MPs have said they are vaccinated, it’s estimated a “handful” may not be, or at least haven’t wanted to discuss publicly what they view as personal medical information.

According to House officials, a “large portion” of MPs who did their swearing-in ceremonies in-person, showed their proof of vaccination at the time and so have been cleared to enter parliamentary buildings when the mandate comes into effect next week. Those who have not shown proof yet can still show their vaccine receipts to security at all building entrances when they arrive.

The House and Senate continue to maintain a series of other COVID-19 precautions, including mandatory masks in most settings, while travel and non-essential events and activities remain off the table. Public tours of the House and Senate are also still off the table, until at least January 31, 2022.

FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS: ELECT A SPEAKER

The first thing MPs have to do at the start of a new Parliament is elect a Speaker of the House of Commons. This person sits in the chair at the head of the House, between the government and opposition benches, and acts as the impartial adjudicator over all business in the chamber.

The process to pick Canada’s next House speaker begins in West Block at 1 p.m. EDT on Monday.

There’s some procedural back and forth between the House and Senate before the vote begins. It’ll be conducted by a secret and ranked ballot vote.

All members of Parliament except for ministers and party leaders are eligible and automatically considered candidates for the role. If an MP doesn't want to be considered, they have to inform the House of Commons to remove their name from the list by 6 p.m. on Sunday night. The final, usually short, list will be made public shortly after.

The dean of the House, aka the MP with the longest continuous service, will oversee the election. This will once again be Bloc Quebecois MP Louis Plamondon, who was first elected in 1984, making this his fifth time as the dean.

• Capital Dispatch: Stay up to date on the latest news from Parliament Hill

Before the vote, each candidate has five minutes to make their case, then after a 30-minute break for any final lobbying, the voting begins, with a winner named after someone receives the majority of votes, which may take a few rounds of counting the ranked ballots.

Because of the vaccine mandate, and the rules around this needing to be the first order of business before any other motion could be presented to allow votes to be taken any other way, only MPs there in person will be able to cast a ballot for Speaker this time around. This is according to officials who briefed reporters on a not-for-attribution basis about the process on Thursday morning.

Once the winner is named they will be invited to take the chair. Traditionally they are ushered up by the prime minister and Official Opposition leader, and the new Speaker is to display some degree of ceremonial resistance to walk up, given the role in the past was one MPs were actually reluctant to take. After the vote the House will likely adjourn for the day.

The deputy and assistant deputy speakers will likely be named in subsequent days and generally are decided upon by consensus amongst the party leaders.

RETURN OF HYBRID SITTINGS?

With the new Parliament now just a few days away, the resumption of a hybrid sitting remains one of, if not the biggest, outstanding question heading into the new session.

Talks between the parties over the future of the hybrid House of Commons set-up have been ongoing.

A new creation to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, MPs agreed last year on a structure that allowed them to vote remotely using an app on their phones and virtually participate from their homes or offices and still appear, via screens, inside the chamber.

Introduced before the mass immunization effort allowed all eligible Canadians to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the hybrid sitting format was intended to be a temporary solution allowing for altered sittings that accommodated the needed public health precautions.

A House of Commons message board welcomes newly elected members of Parliament in Ottawa on Monday, Sept. 27, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The latest agreement allowing these sittings expired when the House of Commons adjourned in June, meaning a new structure for sitting will have to be established if hybrid sittings are to be revived in this Parliament.

Already there appears to be division among the parties over whether the hybrid structure should make a comeback. While the Bloc Quebecois and Conservatives have voiced opposition to continued virtual proceedings, the NDP and Liberals have been outspoken in their support for continuing with a hybrid format, allowing MPs to still have the option to participate in the Commons from their ridings.

“We're in a time of still in the middle of this pandemic, where we don't know where this is going. It's important for us to continue these hybrid provisions. I don't want to be back in a situation in January or February where we're having to renegotiate how the House is operating. I think having that flexibility is extremely important,” Government House Leader Mark Holland told reporters last week.

If a motion can be agreed to, bringing back some elements of the hybrid format, it could be one of the first orders of business next week. It may be time-limited, allowing the House to reconsider in a few months whether a remote option is still needed.

WHY IS IT CALLED A THRONE SPEECH?

Tuesday’s throne speech will, as per tradition, take place in the Senate. It is considered to be what opens every new session, and is where the government outlines its key priorities and commitments for the months, and often years, ahead.

It’s called a speech from the throne because the Governor General reads it from the seat in the Senate Chamber that is reserved for the Queen or her representative. The Nov. 23 speech will be delivered by Gov. Gen. Mary May Simon, with the event getting underway at 1 p.m. EDT.

After COVID-19 upended some of the elements of the last speech from the throne following Trudeau’s summer 2020 prorogation, the 2021 ceremony is expected to look and feel a bit more like traditional throne speeches.

Before the event, MPs will be summoned by the Usher of the Black Rod, who acts as the personal messenger of the Governor General, to attend.

Typically, MPs would just walk down the hall to the Senate from the House chamber, but because under the decade of construction the House and Senate continue to be in their “temporary” spaces of West Block and the Senate of Canada Building a few blocks from each other, Parliament Hill shuttle buses will transport participants.

WHAT WILL BE THE FIRST BILL?

While there always is some symbolism tied in to what the government’s ‘first bill’ will be, regardless of the topic, it'll actually be the second bill of the Parliament.

That's because the first bill, aka "C-1," is a pro-forma piece of legislation that is pre-determined. This bill is essentially the House affirming its right to consider any matter that it deems important, regardless of what's in the throne speech. It's always titled "The Act Respecting the Administration of Oaths of Office." It never proceeds past first reading.

This makes Bill C-2 the government's actual first promise-specific piece of legislation. The Liberals have promised changes to COVID-19 aid benefits that will require new legislation, in addition to a host of other promised bills within their first 100 days. Either way, the earliest a bill other than C-1 could get tabled in the new Parliament without advance special notice, will likely be two days after the throne speech. 

If you need a refresher, here’s what the Liberals promised they’d do if elected during the campaign. 

Side note: while the debate on the throne speech can take up to six days, it's up to the government to decide when they are allotted or whether all six will be used, meaning they don’t have to be consecutive. This means that other bills can be advanced even if debate on the throne speech has not concluded.

KEY MOMENTS TO WATCH FOR

There will be two key moments expected in the early days of the new Parliament: the first confidence vote indicating which parties are ready to prop-up the Liberals, and the expected Conservative question of privilege challenging the process in which the House vaccine mandate was established.

Expect to see a Conservative MP spell out why they feel the mandate is improper and how, in their view, it has impeded members from fulfilling their duties. The Speaker will then likely take the matter under consideration and get back to the House later on with a decision.

“Only the House of Commons itself can determine its composition and its conduct,” Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole told reporters late last month, initially outlining his party’s argument.

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole votes in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

According to House officials, this question of privilege cannot be raised until after the Speaker is named. At that point, while it may be unorthodox to entertain a question of privilege before the opening motions are all dealt with, it’ll be up to the Speaker to determine how quickly this issue could be raised and dealt with.

In terms of the first test of confidence of Trudeau’s second minority government, it will depend on timing and the way the government wants to orchestrate its agenda.

In general there are a few bills or motions that are typically considered confidence matters—votes that test a government’s confidence in the House of Commons, such as the throne speech, budget bills, and any supply bills such as the estimates.

Should the government determine that it needs "supply" -- money to flow to get through to the fiscal year's end in this case – that could actually be the first test of the Liberals minority government’s ability to garner support from the opposition parties, which they need to be able to pass bills and remain in power.

COMMITTEES NOT MEETING UNTIL 2022?

It's possible private members' bills—legislation brought forward by individual MPs rather than the government— won't begin to be debated until the new year.

That's because there’s a whole process that unfolds to get that cycle rolling. First, there is a random draw at the start of the session that determines the order in which all MPs who are able to sponsor a private member’s bill will be allowed to bring their initiatives forward. After the list is established -- called the order of precedence -- then MPs have some time to craft their bills or motions and table them.

The list is permanent and remains unchanged over the course of the Parliament but is grouped into chunks of 30, and within that smaller pool of MPs members can swap slots.

Until there are these bills to debate, the extra hour allotted each day goes to the government.

Committees will also take some time to get rolling, because committee membership needs to be decided and the Procedure and House Affairs Committee that will be tasked with confirming these assignments has 10 days after the start of a session to make those selections. Agreements can be struck if certain committees want to get to work on pressing matters more rapidly, but with just 20 scheduled sitting days before adjourning until 2022 it will leave a short runway for committees to make much headway.