With the Throne Speech delivered on Wednesday, Members of Parliament are back in the swing of things, holding regular meetings of the House of Commons, attending caucus meetings, and starting committee work back up. While the duties are still the same, the method they are being conducted is a little different than normal. This is due to restrictions in place to limit the spread of COVID-19. 

Souris-Moose Mountain MP Dr. Robert Kitchen was in the chambers on Thursday, as it was his day to be in-person for the day’s business. Not every MP will be in the Commons though, at least physically. To allow for all the MP’s to take part, while also ensuring physical distancing is maintained, they are limiting the number of representatives in attendance. 

“The Conservatives will have about 30 to 32 people, and it will be proportional to your representation in the House, and the rest will be virtual,” Kitchen explained. This means the remaining Members of Parliament will be taking part of in the meeting via teleconferencing.  

Kitchen pointed out they are using specific software for the process, as they can’t just utilize any of the teleconferencing software on the market due to security reasons. With that in mind, they will still be able to handle the business as normal, including voting on motions in the House. 

“They’ve set it up such that we’ll have what’s called a virtual vote, so we’ll have the vote in the house, and then we’ll have the virtual vote,” Kitchen elaborated.  

While the technology is there, Kitchen knows it is still a work in progress. 

“The unfortunate part of that is they did a trial run on Monday and that took over an hour and a half to do, just to see how it worked out,” Kitchen said.  

While software for teleconferencing that the average person would use has tools to vote in polls, or while taking a test, it doesn’t quite work the same way in Parliament. When votes are conducted, the Members of Parliament who are participating virtually need to verify they are the ones casting the vote, not someone else on their behalf.