The House and Its Members / Miscellaneous

Notice of motion: motion not included in the Projected Order of Business

March 12, 2008

Debates, pp. 4056-7

On March 12, 2008, Libby Davies (Vancouver East) rose on a point of order with respect to the supply day motion to be debated that day. Ms. Davies argued that as the Official Opposition had failed to indicate to the Speaker which motion they intended to move in time for the publication of the Projected Order of Business for that day, the motion should be ruled out of order. Other Members made interventions.^[1]

The Speaker ruled immediately. He pointed out that there were 30 opposition motions already on the Order Paper, all of them eligible for debate having been on notice for more than 48 hours as required. He ruled that just as the Government is allowed to decide the order of business that the House can consider during Government Orders, an opposition party may likewise do so on its allotted days.

Decision of the Chair

The Speaker: The Chair is prepared to rule on the point of order raised by the hon. Member for Vancouver East.

I point out that contrary to past practice, and I have been here a number of years and remember when there were never any opposition motions sitting on the Order Paper, we now have 30 opposition motions sitting on the Order Paper, all of which have been placed on notice with more than 48 hours notice and are therefore eligible to be called for debate on days that have been awarded to that party based on the division of opposition days.

These opposition days are assigned to the different parties of the House following meetings between the House Leaders and the Whips. It is not the Speaker who decides all this.

The other important thing about this is that the Government can choose the topic for debate at any time.

I point out that page 406 of Marleau and Montpetit says:

The business that the House is to consider during Government Orders is determined solely by the government. On occasions when the Opposition has protested a change in the projected order of business for a specific sitting day, the Chair has reminded Members of the government’s prerogative.

In other words, if the Government decided that tomorrow instead of Bill X it decided to call Bill Y, it could announce it at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning, in effect with no notice, and proceed with Bill Y instead of Bill X, as long as Bill Y is on the Order Paper and 48 hours notice of its introduction has been given and it is before the House.

We have in this case, in my view, a similar situation in respect of the opposition. The opposition has placed notices of motions for supply days on the Order Paper, as I have indicated. Apparently the choice was not made until earlier this afternoon. I just became aware of it once the point of order was raised. However, whichever one it is, notice has been given, so technically the Members are aware that the subject is one that could be called for debate at a certain time on a certain opposition day, and that is what has happened today.

Accordingly, in my view, the motion that we are about to debate, whenever we complete Routine Proceedings, assuming we get through them before 5:30 p.m., will be the one that is the subject for debate today, and I so rule.

I will not speculate on whether a motion that had not been placed on notice would be eligible. I will [leave] that for another argument for another day, and possibly for one of my fellow Chair Occupants.