The Daily Program

Introduction

The conduct of parliamentary business during a sitting of the House follows a pattern prescribed by the Standing Orders. All items that can be called for debate on that day are listed on the Order Paper, the official agenda of the House. The daily activities of the House are generally grouped into five categories: Daily Proceedings; Routine Proceedings; Government Orders; Private Members’ Business; and Adjournment Proceedings. The decisions in this chapter relate to two of these categories: Daily Proceedings and Routine Proceedings.

The House commences its proceedings each sitting day with a prayer, which on Wednesdays is followed by the singing of the national anthem. The prayer is one of three events in the Daily Proceedings, the other two being Statements by Members and Oral Questions. The timing of these varies with the day of the week. The time devoted to Statements by Members is limited to 15 minutes and provides an opportunity for Members who are not Ministers to speak for up to one minute on subjects of international, national, provincial or local interest. Speakers are guided in this regard by guidelines dating to the origin of Statements by Members in 1983 and supplemented by other restrictions added over the years. A number of Mr. Speaker Milliken’s decisions pertained to personal attacks during Statements by Members, which he urged Members to avoid because those being targeted had no opportunity to respond. In another decision arising from a Member’s singing a statement, the Speaker asked Members to confine themselves to the spoken word.

Each sitting day, a 45-minute question period (Oral Questions) follows Statements by Members. Broadly speaking, questions may relate to any matter falling within the jurisdiction of the federal Government. The Speaker ensures that the rules of order and procedure are followed. During his tenure, Mr. Speaker Milliken had to rule on a number of occasions on the admissibility of oral questions. He declared some inadmissible because they did not relate to the Government’s administrative responsibilities. In addition, he confirmed that rarely asked questions to Chairs of committees may bear on the agenda, schedule and proceedings of a committee, but not on its work. He emphasized that it was not up to the Speaker to pass judgment on the content and relevance of answers given, unless they contained unparliamentary language. The Speaker also noted that there was no restriction on who could answer questions about committees. Other decisions in this chapter relate to the tabling of documents and to the maintenance of order during Question Period.

During Routine Proceedings, Members may bring a variety of matters to the attention of the House, generally without debate. Separate rubrics are called by the Speaker each day and considered in succession: Tabling of Documents; Introduction of Government Bills; Statements by Ministers; Presenting Reports from Interparliamentary Delegations; Presenting Reports from Committees; Introduction of Private Members’ Bills; First Reading of Senate Public Bills; Motions; Presenting Petitions; and Questions on the Order Paper. The time of Routine Proceedings varies according to Daily Order of Business and the duration varies according to the number of items considered. Mr. Speaker Milliken’s decisions relate to three of these rubrics: Tabling of Documents; Motions; and Questions on the Order Paper.

Any report or paper that deals with a matter within the administrative competence of the Government or documents that must be tabled pursuant to a statute are usually tabled during Routine Proceedings under the “Tabling of Documents” rubric. However, the practices for tabling documents allow a Minister to do so at any time during a sitting, without the unanimous consent of the House. One decision in this chapter relates to a document tabled by a Minister.

The kinds of motions permissible under “Motions” consist primarily of motions for concurrence in committee reports and motions of instruction. When the Speaker calls “Motions” during Routine Proceedings, any Member or Minister may rise and move a debatable motion if it has been placed on the Notice Paper 48 hours in advance. The motions considered under this heading may also be moved without notice by unanimous consent and adopted without debate. Standing Order 56.1 allows that if, at any time during a sitting, unanimous consent is denied for the presentation of a routine motion for which written notice had not been given, a Minister may request under the heading “Motions” during Routine Proceedings that the Speaker put the motion forthwith, without debate or amendment. Mr. Speaker Milliken delivered a number of rulings on motions moved pursuant to Standing Order 56.1 because Members charged that it was being used for purposes that were never intended. In his rulings, Mr. Speaker Milliken emphasized that it should apply only to routine motions. He warned Members against the tendency to misuse the Standing Order and declared that it could not be used to circumvent the decision-making process of the House. On other occasions, the Speaker ruled on points of order regarding motions for concurrence in committee reports.

A Member wishing to submit a written question must give 48 hours’ notice before it is placed on the Order Paper. Any Member may have a maximum of four such questions on the Order Paper at any time. Written questions are intended to elicit information relating to public affairs for which a Minister’s department is responsible. When the Speaker calls “Questions on the Order Paper” during Routine Proceedings, a Minister, or more usually the Parliamentary Secretary to the Government House Leader, rises to announce which questions the Government intends to answer that day. It is at this time that Members raise any concerns they have about their questions and request information about the status of the reply. Some of Mr. Speaker Milliken’s decisions in this chapter relate to the procedural admissibility of written questions, specifically with regard to their length and content or to the amount of information required to answer them. During his tenure, Mr. Speaker Milliken also ruled on a new procedure introduced in 2001, in which the matter of the Government’s failure to respond to a question within the prescribed period is referred automatically to the appropriate standing committee.