The Legislative Process

Introduction

The examination and enactment of legislation are arguably the primary tasks of Parliament. A bill (a legislative proposal) must pass through a number of very specific stages in the House of Commons and Senate before it becomes law. This is known as the legislative process.

Since Confederation, the rules of both Houses have contained detailed provisions governing the passage of public and private bills. A number of the rules that were in effect at Confederation remain in effect today. Examples, in the case of the House of Commons, are the Standing Orders prohibiting the introduction of bills in blank or imperfect form; stipulating that all bills be read three times on different days; and requiring that they be printed in both official languages and be certified by the Clerk of the House on each reading.

Over the years, the rules governing the legislative process have been amended on many occasions in order to facilitate the consideration of public bills, to expand the roles of committees and to encourage greater participation by Members.

In 2001, near the beginning of Mr. Speaker Milliken’s tenure, due to the growing tendency of the Notice Paper being inundated by hundreds of motions to amend certain controversial bills at report stage, the House amended the notes accompanying Standing Orders 76(5) and 76.1(5) to guide the Chair in selecting motions in amendment for debate at that stage. Particularly pertinent to this chapter is Mr. Speaker Milliken’s statement of March 21, 2001, on the interpretation and application of these notes. Also worth noting is his key decision of March 29, 2001, regarding the selection and grouping of motions in amendment at report stage of Bill C-2 for the purposes of debate, as the Speaker used his discretionary authority to select motions that could have been moved in committee but were not. Shortly after the opening of the Thirty-Eighth Parliament, Mr. Speaker Milliken took the opportunity to explain how the Chair had handled motions at report stage since 2001. His decision of November 21, 2007, dealt with a bill that had been emptied of its contents in committee and defeated motions to restore the deleted clauses at report stage. Mr. Speaker Milliken also delivered several important decisions on points of order concerning the admissibility of amendments adopted in committee, one of which had previously been ruled out of order by the committee Chair.

Mr. Speaker Milliken also ruled on the admissibility of an amendment to refer a bill at third reading to committee to reconsider a clause and on the admissibility of a motion of instruction giving a committee the power to divide a bill and requiring it to report to the House by a certain date.

On several occasions, Mr. Speaker Milliken ruled on procedural matters related to the introduction in the House of bills originating in the Senate. During the Second Session of the Thirty-Seventh Parliament, he made two decisions in response to a Senate proposal to divide Bill C-10 into two bills.

Again in the Thirty-Seventh Parliament, Mr. Speaker Milliken made two rulings on the reinstatement of bills at the start of the Third Session, when the newly-formed Government moved a motion providing that Government bills from the previous session be reinstated.

Mr. Speaker Milliken’s tenure was notable in that he presided over the House during the terms of both majority and minority governments. The minority Government dynamic was clearly reflected in the legislative process. This chapter contains 26 decisions, including those mentioned above, that touch on and are grouped here by the various stages in the legislative process. They show that Mr. Speaker Milliken was able to adapt his decisions to the circumstances of his tenure and to the changes to the Standing Orders governing the legislative process.