Hon. Marilou McPhedran: Senator Gold, because I don’t belong to any Senate caucus I wasn’t able to ask this question of the President of the Public Service Commission at Committee of the Whole last December, so I’m pleased to be able to ask you the question.

Can you inform this chamber if whole-of-government policy directives regulating the use of non-disclosure agreements, or NDAs, in resolving employee grievances about harassment exist? Does the government track frequency, cost and other related metrics related to the usage of NDAs in departments, Crown corporations and other entities receiving federal funding?

Senator McPhedran: Thank you very much. I want to go back to something I referenced in my speech last evening, and thank you very much for your communication when you acknowledged that you had listened to my speech. You then will recall I referenced a Speaker’s ruling on rule 12-5. I won’t go into all of the detail, but there is one very specific statement I’m going to ask you to interpret, based on the position you have taken about group ownership of the individual member’s position. It says that if a senator withdraws from a caucus, rule 12-5 would cease to apply. The senator would retain any then current committee membership, unless removed either through a report of the Committee of Selection or a substantive motion adopted by the Senate.