Precedence and Sequence of Business / Private Members' Business, Notices of Motions

Private Members' Business, notices of motions

Journals pp. 173-5

Debates pp. 1557-8

Background

On November 7, Mr. Herbert (Vaudreuil) raised a point of order to challenge practices dealing with the program and selection of notices of motions standing on the Order Paper during private Members' hour. Specifically, he pointed to the discrepancy between Standing Orders 19(1) and 49(1): the former allows notices of motions to stand and retain their place at the request of the government while the latter Standing Order states that when a notice of motion has been called twice by the Chair and not proceeded with, it shall be dropped. The matter was raised again, on November 14. On that occasion the Deputy Speaker decided to reserve his decision since it was recognized that there were contradictions in past experience and that the new practice was not really based on the previous usage of the two Standing Orders. Extensive debate on the matter took place on November 28.

Issue

Is there a conflict between the government's method of arranging such business and the Standing Orders?

Decision

It is proposed that the practice of the House developed over the last few years during Private Members' Business be continued in the following manner:

  • the government shall seek to arrange in advance Private Members' Business;
  • the House shall proceed directly to the scheduled item, standing all preceding items by unanimous consent;
  • any Member may withhold unanimous consent;
  • when there is no unanimous consent, the Chair will call the items seriatim;
  • items called seriatim will be allowed to stand either at the request of the government or by unanimous consent;
  • if the item called is not stood either by unanimous consent or at the request of the government, it will drop to the bottom of the list on the Order Paper when it is a bill, or it will disappear from the Order Paper when it is a notice of motion;
  • if the item is not stood by unanimous consent, but is stood at the request of the government, this will be noted on the Order Paper ;
  • by Standing Order 49(1), a notice of motion called twice from the Chair, having stood at the request of the government and not proceeded with, will disappear from the Order Paper.

Reasons given by the Deputy Speaker

There are two advantages to the arrangement whereby the government has taken a certain initiative to determine in advance the item of Private Members' Business to be considered at a particular sitting: it gives the House advance warning of the business to be taken up and it protects private Members' business more effectively than the Standing Orders.

The current practice is a combination of the Standing Orders and the general practice which has grown up during Private Members' Business which is considered to be of benefit to all.

Authorities cited

Standing Orders 18(1), 19(1) and 49(1).

References

Debates, November 7, 1977, pp. 647-8 ; November 14, 1977, pp. 832-3 ; November 28, 1977, pp. 1337-46.