Visit to Canada of the Right Honourable the Lord Fowler, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom

From October 2 to 4, 2017, the Right Honourable the Lord Fowler, Lord Speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, visited Ottawa at the invitation of the Honourable George J. Furey, Q.C., Speaker of the Senate, and the Honourable Geoff Regan, P.C., M.P., Speaker of the House of Commons. He was accompanied by Lady Fowler, Mr. Patrick Milner, Private Secretary to the Lord Speaker, and Ms. Žana Paul, Assistant Head of International Relations, Overseas Office.

While in Ottawa, the Lord Speaker held meetings with:

• The Honourable George J. Furey, Q.C., Speaker of the Senate;
• The Honourable Geoff Regan, P.C., M.P., Speaker of the House of Commons;
• The Honourable V. Peter Harder, P.C., Senator, Government Representative in the Senate;
• The Steering Committee of the Special Committee on Senate Modernization which is composed of the Honourable Thomas J. McInnis, Senator, Chair, the Honourable Serge Joyal, Senator, Deputy Chair, and the Honourable Elaine McCoy, Senator.
• Mr. Michel Patrice, Deputy Clerk, House of Commons, Ms. Hélène Bouchard, Chief Corporate Services Officer, Senate, Mr. Stephan Aubé, Chief Information Officer, House of Commons, and Mr. Soufiane Ben Moussa, Chief Technology Officer, House of Commons;
• Chief Superintendent Michael Duheme, Director of the Parliamentary Protective Service.

The Lord Speaker also attended the official installation ceremony of the 29th Governor General of Canada, Ms. Julie Payette. He had several site visits focusing on the renovation and modernisation of the parliamentary precinct.

The visit to Canada provided an opportunity to strengthen the already strong bilateral relations between the two parliaments and to exchange on many topics, such as parliamentary administration and reforms, cyber security and building renovation planning.