The Legislative Process / Stages

Third reading: Member requesting a reprint of a bill

October 9, 2003

Debates, p. 8353

On October 6, 2003, Paul Szabo (Mississauga South) rose on a question of privilege to call for Bill C-13, Assisted Human Reproduction Act, to be reprinted at third reading.^[1] He stated that a reprint would reflect the numerous and significant changes made at report stage. Considering the complexity of the Bill, the time elapsed since the last occasion on which the Bill was debated, and the number of amendments presented and adopted at report stage, he argued that Members did not have the information in a form that allowed reasoned debate (On March 31, 2003,^[2] and October 3, 2003,^[3] Mr. Szabo had unsuccessfully sought unanimous consent to have the Bill reprinted). The Acting Speaker (Réginald Bélair) took the matter under advisement.

On October 9, 2003, the Acting Speaker (Réginald Bélair) delivered his ruling. He reminded Members that it was not the practice of the House to have bills reprinted at third reading, and that the unanimous consent of the House was required if a motion to order a reprint was to be put without notice.

Decision of the Chair

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Bélair): I will now give the ruling on the question of privilege raised by the hon. Member for Mississauga South on October 6. I thank the hon. Member for raising the question, as well as the hon. Member for Yellowhead for his comments.

The hon. Member for Mississauga South argued that, in light of the complexity of the Bill and of the number of amendments which the House had adopted at report stage, Members required a reprint of the Bill in order to be able to properly conduct debate at third reading. He pointed out that this need was all the more pressing given that the Bill had not been debated since April 10 of this year.

The unanimous consent of the House was sought on March 31 and again on October 3 to permit a motion ordering a reprint of the Bill to be put to a vote. The consent was denied.

I would like to remind the hon. Member that it is not the practice of the House to have bills reprinted at third reading. In this regard I refer him to the ruling by the Deputy Speaker on the same point concerning Bill C-13 on March 31, at page 4922 of the Debates.

As the hon. Member is fully aware, the House may, if it chooses, order a reprint of the Bill. The unanimous consent necessary to allow such a motion to be put without notice has so far not been forthcoming.