A look inside the ‘just-in-case’ House of Commons chamber
The House of Commons has a temporary home away from its other temporary home.
A makeshift House has been set up at the Sir John A. Macdonald (SJAM) building across the street from Parliament while maintenance work is being done to the current chamber in West Block.
The maintenance is expected to be completed before MPs return to Ottawa on Sept. 18, according to House Speaker Anthony Rota’s office. But a temporary chamber was needed in case the House was recalled during the summer months. The work being done in West Block’s chamber includes updates to cameras and other digital tools.
The makeshift arrangement at SJAM includes some familiar staples of the usual House, with a formal speaker’s chair and clerk’s table. It also includes cameras and video screens for MPs to join virtually, though Rota’s office said there are seats for all 338 MPs.
But the setup doesn’t include the typical MPs’ chairs and desks. Instead, stackable chairs have been arranged to mimic the House seating arrangement.
Typically MPs also have microphones on their desks, allowing them to speak from their chairs. But in this temporary arrangement, MPs would have to rise and walk to one of two podiums placed in the aisle in order to speak.
The two podiums stand side-by-side in a break from typical proceedings, where MPs are meant to speak across the aisle of the House chamber. According to the House of Commons website, the aisle is traditionally just under four metres wide, or “two sword lengths” — a convention dating back to the historic British House of Commons, where enough space was left as a reminder to members to seek peaceful resolutions.
“All the necessary furniture and equipment has been installed in the Sir John A. Macdonald Building for the House to conduct its business. The alternate chamber in the SJAM building replicates as closely as possible the Chamber’s usual physical and administrative environment,” a spokesperson from Rota’s office said in an email.
While rare, it’s not unheard of for the House to be recalled during the summer months, when MPs typically spend time in their ridings. A skeleton House of Commons met four times during the summer of 2020, when the country was still gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were rumblings this summer that the House could be recalled to bring an end to the recent B.C. port strike, though that scenario was avoided after workers voted in favour of a new tentative deal on Friday.
The 13-day strike prompted a number of business groups and premiers to call for back-to-work legislation. If the House had been recalled, MPs would have debated the legislation in the SJAM building.
This isn’t the first time the House of Commons has been given a temporary home. The current chamber in West Block is meant to be used in the interim while the historic chamber in Centre Block undergoes a massive facelift.
After the original Centre Block burned down in 1916, MPs and senators were moved to temporary chambers at Ottawa’s Victoria Memorial Museum Building, which is now home to the Canadian Museum of Nature.
Centre Block as it stands now was reopened for House and Senate business in 1920.
In 2010, senators were forced to flee Parliament after an earthquake rocked the capital while the upper chamber was in session. The Senate speaker at the time tried to convene senators on the front lawn of Parliament to officially adjourn the session for the day, according to a Globe and Mail article from that time.
WATCH | A progress report inside the Centre Block’s renovation
Construction for Parliament Hill’s Centre Block is well underway, removing toxic asbestos, restoring and refurbishing heritage artifacts and building new parts. A new vistor’s centre that will be more accessible and fit twice as many guests is also being built.
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