Management of Private Members’ Business

The Speaker is responsible for the orderly conduct of Private Members’ Business, ensuring that there is a minimum 24-hours’ notice of items to be considered during Private Members’ Hour, identifying identical or similar items of Private Members’ Business, arranging the exchange of items in the order of precedence and rescheduling debate if Private Members’ Hour is delayed for more than 90 minutes.

The Clerk of the House is responsible for most of the administrative and procedural duties associated with Private Members’ Business. These include making arrangements for the draw for the List for the Consideration of Private Members’ Business, establishing and replenishing the order of precedence, ensuring that Members and their staff know when their items of business are to be taken up during Private Members’ Hour and providing the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and the Subcommittee on Private Members’ Business with procedural advice on Private Members’ Business.

Legislative counsel from the Office of the Law Clerk and Parliamentary Counsel assist private Members in drafting bills for introduction in the House and in drafting amendments to government bills and private Members’ bills. Priority in drafting private Members’ bills is accorded to those Members whose names are about to be placed in the order of precedence and to those Members who have not previously had a bill drafted by parliamentary counsel during that session.273 Legislative advice involves taking into account existing laws, constitutional and formal requirements, and drafting conventions. While Members may draft their own bills or retain outside counsel for that purpose, before these bills are introduced in the House, they are reviewed by parliamentary counsel and certified as to their correctness in form.