Questions Related to Content of Bills / Scope of Royal Recommendation

Scope of Royal Recommendation

Journals pp. 836-7

Debates p. 7167

Background

On May 20, during consideration at report stage of the amendments proposed by the Standing Committee on National Resources and Public Works to Bill C-144, an Act to provide for the management of the water resources of Canada ... , Mr. McCleave (Halifax-East Hants) raised a point of order on the adequacy of the terms of the financial recommendation respecting the bill. The following day the Speaker ruled.

Issue

Must a financial recommendation list all the objectives of a bill?

Decision

No, it is not necessary to enumerate all the objectives of a bill in a financial recommendation.

Reasons given by the Speaker

"The guiding principle in determining the effect of an amendment upon the financial initiative of the Crown is that the communication, to which the Royal Demand of recommendation is attached, must be treated as laying down once and for all ... not only the amount of a charge, but also its objects, purposes, conditions and qualifications." Consequently, "it is not necessary that all objectives of a bill be recited in a financial recommendation, but rather it is financial charges or expenditures that must be covered in it".

Sources cited

Beauchesne, 4th ed., p. 207, c. 246(3).

References

Debates, May 20, 1970, pp. 7128-9.