Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Minister, through you, Madam Chair. Following up on MP Romanado's point, do you foresee the Parliament of Canada in 10 years going through the exact same exercise that we're going through today?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and through you to Mr. Sutherland, former clerk-at-the-table of the House of Commons David Gussow submitted testimony to this committee. He talked about the challenge of dealing with increased disproportionality. He wrote, “The current bill will increase that disproportionality from 44 to 46 seats for three of the provinces.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Professor Taillon. I think you nailed it there. Quebec never anticipated the population distribution that we have today. I think that's the constitutional void that we find ourselves in. In the context of changing the threshold to protect seats in Quebec, it's a problem unless we do what you actually talked about, another constitutional discussion with the provinces.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Professor Taillon, for being here today. In your opening remarks, you spoke a lot about the reference to Parliament's decision to recognize Quebec as a nation within a united Canada. It got me thinking back to the days of Confederation and political science 101, when we learned about Cartier and Macdonald and the creation of Canada as we know it today.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Yes, thank you.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Okay. Those are resources that I might consider were probably available when the G20 protest happened in Toronto.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I appreciate those comments. Councillor McKenney wrote a letter on February 3 requesting “that the federal government and the RCMP assume full operational control of Parliament Hill and the Parliamentary Precinct so that Ottawa Police Services can be deployed into the local neighbourhoods to restore peace and enforce our laws, something that is simply not happening at this time.”

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's very helpful. Thank you. The Canadian Police Association was in Ottawa a few weeks ago. They're proposing right now—it was one of their key asks—that: ...the federal government organize a national summit that brings together key stakeholders, including representatives of police executives, front-line police representatives, municipal and provincial officials responsible for public safety, and community-based organizations with experience in organizing public events, to establish a clear framework to coordinate the response to protests and demonstrations.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. That was very helpful, Senator White. I have one more quick question. Through you, Madam Chair, Mr. Sloly mentioned “environmental design”. Would removing cars from Wellington and maybe putting in a tramway be a good way to deal with some of the security issues you mentioned, through environmental design versus the jurisdictional challenges that were outlined in the opening remarks?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  You say 10,000 assets, so it wasn't the existing laws in Canada that were preventing you from dealing with the situation. It was the use of resources that you were requesting from other levels of government that prevented you from doing the job you wanted to do at that time.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Were there more than 1,800 to 2,000 police officers present in Toronto during those protests?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll move very quickly with my questions to the witnesses today, just out of time constraints. Through you, Madam Chair, following up on my colleague's commentary, in questioning, Mr. Sloly, you mentioned “resources” numerous times and said that resources were a big issue.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Were you present during—I believe it was—the G7 or G20 protests?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you. To Mr. Royer, through you, Madam Chair, has any analysis regarding the costs of upgrading the Alexandra Bridge been completed?